Renewable energy consultancy and service provider Natural Power has appointed Erlend Christiansen as offshore consents lead in Ireland.

This new role underpins Natural Power’s commitment to developing offshore wind projects in support of meeting Ireland’s renewable energy target of 70% renewable electricity by 2030.

Growth of offshore consenting team

Seán Manley, country director for Natural Power Ireland, said: “We’re delighted that Erlend has joined the team. The breadth and depth of his offshore experience will undoubtedly support us as we grow our offshore consenting team to meet Ireland’s target of connecting at least 3.5GW of offshore wind by 2030.

"We are currently delivering planning and environmental services on up to 2.6GW of projects in Ireland and will continue to expand our team to service the demands of the offshore industry in Ireland.”

Erlend Christiansen

Erlend previously held the role as offshore lead for the Celtic Interconnector project with EirGrid. Here he was responsible for managing delivery of the offshore consents and permits, marine surveys, cable routing, cable burial, foreshore license, offshore environmental assessments, fishing liaison, PCI consultation process for UK EEZ, and the projects’ marine studies and the marine installation specifications for the HVDC cable.

Prior to this, Erlend worked in the offshore industry; both in offshore renewables and the oil and gas sector, and has significant experience in project management roles developing strategic infrastructure projects, with an emphasis on managing planning consents, tendering, EPC procurement and managing the work of external marine and planning consultants.

Erlend said: “It’s an exciting time to be joining Natural Power especially with the growing offshore wind market in Ireland and I am really looking forward to working within Natural Power’s diverse array of exciting offshore renewable projects.”

Erlend holds a master's in Sustainable Energy Systems as well as a BA Engineering (Hons) and is currently working towards Chartered status with Engineers Ireland.

Based in the Dublin office, Erlend can be reached on erlendc@naturalpower.com