12.9 Noise
- No evidence has been found to date with regard to existing offshore wind farms to suggest that prescribed sound signals are in any way impacted by acoustic noise produced by the wind farm, and so no impact is anticipated from the presence of the Array.
12.10 Summary of Potential Effects on Use
- Based on the detailed technical assessment of the effects due to the presence of the Array on navigation, communication and position fixing equipment in the previous subsections, Table 12.2 summarises the assessment of frequency and consequence and the resulting risk for each component of this impact.
Table 12.2: Summary of Risk to Navigation, Communication and Position Fixing Equipment
Topic | Frequency | Consequence | Significance of Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
VHF | Negligible | Minor | Broadly Acceptable |
VHF direction finding | Extremely Unlikely | Minor | Broadly Acceptable |
AIS | Negligible | Minor | Broadly Acceptable |
NAVTEX | Negligible | Minor | Broadly Acceptable |
GPS | Negligible | Minor | Broadly Acceptable |
EMF | Extremely Unlikely | Negligible | Broadly Acceptable |
Marine Radar | Remote | Minor | Broadly Acceptable |
SONAR | Negligible | Minor | Broadly Acceptable |
Noise | Negligible | Minor | Broadly Acceptable |
- On the basis of these findings, associated risks are screened out of the risk assessment undertaken in section 16.