The Cavendish team has been working on a proposal for a 20MW solar farm with battery storage in Rushcliffe Borough Council brought forward by RWE Solar & Storage. From organising an exhibition event open to the local community, to engaging with political stakeholders and running an ad campaign to help spread word about the project, the team have delivered across the board.
Bente Klein,
Solar & Storage Project Development Manager,
RWE
Background
Cavendish is providing political and community engagement expertise to support RWE to deliver on its clean energy ambition. This includes new onshore wind projects, solar farms, battery energy storage systems, hydrogen facilities, new Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power stations, and retrofitting existing assets with carbon capture and storage technology.
Encompassing many complex technological processes, concise and effective communications has been critical to RWE’s success, ensuring local stakeholders and members of the local community can understand the plans and engage with the consultation and planning process.
These projects have harnessed Cavendish’s experience and policy expertise to ensure statutory compliance across a wide range of consenting mechanisms, including DCO’s, variations to Section 36 and full Section 36 consent applications in Scotland, as well as TCPA’s across England, Scotland and Wales.
What we are providing
RWE’s projects have each been delivered by locally based regional teams across many Cavendish offices, including in Manchester, Glasgow, London, Birmingham and Nottingham. This regional approach has allowed Cavendish to utilise its strong understanding of the local political and community landscape to deliver comprehensive and effective engagement strategies for RWE.
As part of RWE’s ambition to expand its renewable energy generation assets, Cavendish has supported over 1GW of onshore wind farms in Scotland, as well as six solar farms across both TCPA and DCO consenting routes.
To support a significant growth in RWE’s pipeline of solar and storage projects, Cavendish worked with RWE to develop a bespoke consultation platform with a mobile first approach, that could be tailored and rolled out quickly for each new project, while maintaining consistent brand messaging. This has been used across 15 TCPA applications and tailored for two DCO’s.
Alongside investment in renewable energy, Cavendish has supported RWE to decarbonise its existing generation portfolio, with two section 36 variation consents to implement Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology at its existing power stations in Staythorpe and Pembroke, as well as a DCO application for a new CCGT power station with CCS in Stallingborough.
RWE’s plans to decarbonise Pembroke Power Station are complemented by the ambition to develop a number of new innovative clean energy technologies, including a green hydrogen facility and battery energy storage systems – referred to as Pembroke Net Zero Centre. Cavendish worked with RWE to formalise its messaging around the vision, positively positioning the plans in the local community and Senedd, while ensuring an alignment with new government priorities.
With three new technologies undertaking pre-application consultation in quick succession at Pembroke Power Station, with more to follow, Cavendish has delivered a cohesive communications approach across each project, while managing the risks associated with consultation fatigue and perceived cumulative impact.
RWE is committed to strong community relations, and its ambitions to decarbonise its energy generation has resulted in an ever-increasing requirement for their staff to engage the public and attend consultation events. To support the effective communication of the proposed projects and their benefits, Cavendish delivered bespoke training sessions for members of RWE’s technical teams. The training enabled participants to create a positive narrative, communicate complex information succinctly and engage confidently with local communities to deliver change.
The
results.
Led by Cavendish’s Infrastructure & Energy specialists, and through strong communication across delivery teams, Cavendish has been able to deliver comprehensive and tailored communications approaches on each of RWE’s projects, while ensuring cost savings and efficiencies are embedded into delivery.
Cavendish has been working with RWE since 2010 and in this time has supported the delivery of:
- Over 1GW of onshore wind projects;
- 920MW of solar and battery storage projects;
- a 110MW hydrogen generation facility;
- the decarbonisation of 3.9GW of CCGT power station fleet;
- a new decarbonised 900MW CCGT
Together, these RWE projects supported by Cavendish will generate enough clean energy to power the equivalent of over 18 million homes, while new technologies like hydrogen support the decarbonisation of critical industrial activity.
+18M
The project will generate enough clean energy to power 18M+ homes.
6
Supported in six solar farms
