Thomson Environmental Consultants is a leading environmental consultancy supporting utilities providers and energy developers across the UK. As environmental consultants to the clean energy sector, we understand the complexity of environmental regulation and the importance of business and nature thriving together.
With experience advising on over 2.5 gigawatts of renewable energy production projects, Thomson is equipped to manage the environmental aspects of your project, regardless of scale. Our environmental support covers the entire lifecycle, from initial scheme design through to project delivery and subsequent monitoring and maintenance.
Renewable energy services
Our renewable energy services are broad and are delivered by multidisciplinary experts working as a single, integrated consultancy team.
Wind energy consultants
Thomson Environmental Consultants provides specialist consultancy services for wind energy development, supporting onshore and offshore components of projects with environmental assessment, ecology surveys, permitting, and compliance. Our consultants help streamline planning, reduce risk, and keep wind energy projects moving from concept to construction and operation.
Arboriculture consultants
Our arboriculture consultants bring extensive knowledge of tree management, regulatory requirements, and the negotiation of environmental complexities associated with trees and development. Our expertise is applied across a range of development types, from small residential schemes to large-scale, nationally significant infrastructure projects. We serve a wide breadth of sectors, including energy utilities covering generation and distribution infrastructure. We can support with large-scale surveys of cable route infrastructure at the planning stage of a project, through to support with post-development tree risk surveys during the operational phase of a development. More information on our arboriculture services can be found at:
Digital mapping and GIS services
Thomson Environmental Consultants’ GIS and Mapping team provides specialised data capture, management, and analysis to support projects across terrestrial, and freshwater environments. Our GIS specialists will support you throughout the entire data lifecycle, from establishing collection standards and systems to managing, organising, and analysing the data.
Habitat creation and maintenance consultants
At Thomson Environmental Consultants, we offer comprehensive mitigation services for energy generation infrastructure and associated cable routes. This includes obtaining licenses and carrying out translocations for protected species, such as reptiles and great crested newts, and mitigating the impact on badger setts impacted by works.
Our contracting team is also equipped to handle on-site physical works, including vegetation clearance during the enabling phase, installation of essential protective measures (e.g. protected species fencing and tree protection fencing), and post-installation landscape enhancement, such as grass seeding and planting of hedgerows and trees.
Ultimately, we work with clients to develop mitigation strategies, habitat creation and enhancement schemes, and develop Habitat Management and Maintenance Plans (HMMP) to ensure that any loss of habitat from development or building works is compensated for, and that biodiversity is enhanced and protected for the future. Our experts help you to understand relevant environmental regulations and ensure that legal and planning requirements are met.
Our biodiversity and habitat management services include:
- Habitat creation, clearance and restoration services
- Wildlife fencing and trapping
- Invasive plant species management
- Tree planting schemes
- Tree removal and vegetation clearance
Ornithological assessments
Ornithology assessments are often required for large-scale energy infrastructure projects as they can have both temporary (enabling and construction-related) and permanent displacement (operating-related) impacts on birds. Assessments may need to cover the presence of birds at different times of year, including spring/summer breeding and winter/non-breeding/migratory stages. Thomson Environmental provides specialist ornithology surveys to support renewable energy developments at the planning and construction stages. We work with Tier 1 consultants and contractors, as well as directly with renewable energy developers, helping inform design, support consenting, and meet planning condition requirements.
We can undertake bird surveys for onshore wind developments, including assessment of impacts from the development footprint and collision risk associated with turbines. Where required, surveys can also assess potential impacts of overhead cabling between turbines and substations, or grid connections.
Ornithology surveys are also commonly required for solar farms, which are typically located across large areas of farmland. Our surveys assess potential impacts of habitat loss or bird displacement, including effects on feeding areas (e.g., geese).
Our range of bird surveys includes:
- Wintering bird surveys
- Flight activity surveys
- Intertidal and wetland bird surveys (through-the-tide-cycle method)
- Breeding bird surveys
- Roosting and breeding raptor surveys
- Targeted surveys and assessments for Schedule 1 bird species
Talk to our renewable energy consultants
Whether you’re looking for Ecological Clerk of Works (ECoW), Arboricultural Clerk of Works (ACoW), species surveys, expert witness for planning enquiries or anything in between, as a leading specialist environmental consultancy, we are trusted, agile, innovative, and responsive to clients’ needs. We support you in delivering the most challenging projects, and we have a track record of doing so at scale.
Whether your project is on land or in water, we have the expertise to provide straightforward advice from the start, backed by the full range of services and solutions you need.
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