In January, Scottish Natural Heritage released their new “Bats and Onshore Wind Turbines: Survey, Assessment and Mitigation” guidance.  The document brings together years of research and aims to further improve the robustness, and reliability, of bat surveys undertaken to inform proposed wind farm developments.

The new guidance sees some far-reaching changes to existing practice, so our ecologists have been keen to help our clients understand what’s in store. In early February our Associate Ecologist, Juli Titherington, brought together renewable energy developers from across the country for a breakfast event.  Over a roll and bacon (and some of the largest croissants we’ve ever seen), Juli led a really useful discussion that covered everything from procurement to data analysis.

One of the emerging themes of the discussion was the need to apply pragmatism and proportionality to the adoption of the new guidelines. LUC is very much looking forward to working with our clients and our peers at SNH in taking the discussion further.

Read the new SNH guidance update

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