E-learning for offshore wind consenting in the UK

The Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC), through its Pathways to Growth (P2G) program, is focused on addressing the critical environmental and consenting challenges that may hinder the UK’s aim of meeting its target to deliver 50GW of energy from offshore wind by 2030.

One challenge addressed through this program is the mobilisation of government resources to meet the increasing demands of the consenting process throughout the lifecycle of an offshore wind farm.

RPS designed an e-learning solution to help new decision-makers enhance their knowledge of the consenting process, including giving them rapid and effective onboarding tools.

Real-world offshore wind industry experience, paired with high-quality training

A key factor in developing an effective training solution is having the right subject matter experts (SME). We drew on the deep in-house expertise RPS has in offshore wind consenting (otherwise known as permitting and approvals). RPS has over 20 years at the forefront of the offshore wind industry in the UK, Europe, America, Australia and Asia. Past and present projects include sector firsts such as the world’s largest offshore wind farms, Hornsea One, Two and Three. We are currently supporting the Round 4 EIA and HRA for the bp and EnBW consortium in the UK; Australia’s first offshore wind development, Star of the South; and we are the ESIA consultant for Equinor’s Firefly floating offshore wind project in South Korea.

The SMEs from the offshore wind team at RPS along with our learning designers and organisations represented on the Offshore Wind Sector Deal Pathways to Growth Coordination Group collaborated to determine the topics and objectives of the e-learning. RPS guided the instructional design to ensure a logical course progression. The topics were organised into modules. Each module ends with a short assessment to ascertain knowledge retention. Based on the requirements of each module, we created engaging, interactive and visually appealing course materials that enhance learning.

The module titles include

• Offshore wind in the UK
• Offshore wind and climate change
• Key players in the UK Offshore Wind industry
• Project planning and early development of an offshore wind farm
• Applying for and securing the main consents for an offshore wind farm in the UK
• From consent to construction and operation of an offshore wind farm
• Decommissioning of an offshore wind farm

Bringing new offshore wind consenting resources up to speed quickly

As part of the British energy security strategy, the UK government hopes to increase the pace of offshore wind deployment by 25%. The government is looking to reduce development time by half to meet this goal.

There is a clear and established process for assessing the environmental impacts and consenting for offshore wind projects in the UK. With the rapid increase in the number of offshore leases and projects, many new decision-makers may not be familiar with the offshore wind industry and the consenting process. The e-learning allows new staff to quickly gain the comprehensive knowledge needed to move the development, pre-construction, construction, operational and decommissioning phases of offshore wind farm development forward.

Deep expertise in technical training

Our training programmes draw on our extensive energy sector expertise and our track record in instructional design. We have provided learning and development solutions for the wider energy industry for over 20 years. We deliver technical training to audiences of various skill levels, including those with non-technical backgrounds.

If you would like to find out more about offshore wind industry training from RPS, please contact: Gary Nichols