Civiltech’s Nature-based Solutions (NbS) team provides services in support of site selection, feasibility studies, community engagement, environmental assessments, civil site design, permitting, and post-construction maintenance and monitoring for Renewable Energy projects. Civiltech’s Renewable Energy services generally encompass the three renewable energy sources: wind, solar, and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).
The Primary Goal: Selecting Appropriate Sites
The primary goal of natural resource analysis, environmental due diligence, and preliminary civil site design is to select sites appropriate to the needs of the renewable energy structures and to analyze the project’s impact on its environment. Developers often select a number of sites for consideration and the NbS team will assist with environmental site evaluations. The evaluations can include natural resources and environmental due diligence, such as wetland delineations, tree surveys, habitat assessments, natural resources impact mitigation, Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (ESA), drainage analysis, Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans (SWPPP), Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure Plans (SPCC), and access to and impacts on adjacent infrastructure. The evaluation process can include leading community outreach as well.
Critical Issues Analysis
Based on the environmental site evaluation, the team typically prepares a Critical Issues Analysis (CIA) Report and a conceptual civil site layout. The CIA presents the opportunities and challenges for a site, such as potential impacts to wetlands and wildlife communities, and potential issues with compliance and regulation. The site layout can include renewable energy structures such as solar arrays or BESS slabs and other site design elements such as stormwater management features or transportation infrastructure. As the developer often provides a general layout for a site, in terms of solar arrays and BESS, the NbS team is typically tasked to finalize the layout and bring the plan sets to a 30% completion for the initial site analysis. Other Civiltech disciplines are engaged on an as needed basis if a site requires new transportation infrastructure such as roads and bridges or stormwater modeling.
Identifying Sites and Determining Outcomes
The developer will review the 30% plan sets, the CIA, and consider community feedback, and will eliminate the sites that are not practical or feasible. Once appropriate sites are identified, the developer may implement the project themselves or potentially sell the package to another developer to execute. After a project has been successfully packaged, the Civiltech NbS team is often engaged again to do the design plans and specifications, to assist in the permitting, to provide construction observation, and provide post-construction maintenance and monitoring.