Innovation and research centre the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult has published a report calling for the adoption of a Regional Ecosystem Monitoring Programme (REMP) to speed up the consenting process.
As the UK government has turned its focus to increasing offshore wind deployment, change to the environmental consenting process will be necessary to ensure the rollout can be delivered at pace.
As things currently stand, environmental assessments for potential offshore wind developments are carried out project by project, which can take several years at a time.
ORE Catapult calls for the adoption of an REMP, which would assess environmental impacts at a regional level and speed up the consenting process to deliver the scale and pace needed for the UK to meet offshore wind targets. The regional monitoring programme would replace developer-led assessments and be funded by the government, although it suggests this cost could be recovered indirectly in the tender from the winning bidder.
The report also recommends appointing an independent body to oversee and facilitate the REMP process and removing the ‘scoping phase’ from the pre-application stage of the environmental consenting process.
A regional approach would benefit both industry and regulator. Industry would benefit from reducing the complexity and cost of monitoring, while regulators would benefit from a lower administrative burden and reduced uncertainty around environmental impacts.
Finally, ORE Catapult’s report carried out as part of the Accelerating Consenting for Offshore Renewables Deployment (ACORD) project, advocates embracing innovative monitoring technology to enable multiscale, concurrent analysis.
It is suggested that an open-source database including environmental impact assessment (EIA) and monitoring data for all offshore wind farms and grid projects would allow developers to complete mandatory EIAs more quickly and at lower cost. Making the data sets generated by the system open access would, according to the report, ensure the information is “genuinely useful” and feeds into policy and management measures.
The report author, Dr Caroline Whalley, environmental specialist for ORE Catapult, said: We need to embrace next-generation survey methodologies and thinking. By transitioning to a regional scale ecosystem-based approach to monitoring, we can take a more holistic view of ensuring the UK is making quicker and more informed decisions about future sustainable offshore wind deployment.”
Marine ecology expert Professor Beth Scott from the University of Aberdeen called the move to an REMP a “game changer”.
She continued: “The regional approach outlined by ORE Catapult provides a clear roadmap, that includes reflective, adaptive changes that will allow the better understanding of effective regional planning decisions and hence consenting decisions can be made closer to the rate of change necessary.
“The scientific community stands ready and able to enact and facilitate a regional approach. We are excited to see offshore industries, policymakers and governments interested in pursuing this direction”.
Enabling offshore wind development
ORE Catapult recently launched its fifth Fit for Offshore Renewables (F4OR) supply chain mentoring programme, exclusively open to companies in the North East of Scotland.
Meanwhile, the research centre has partnered with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), which will fund a £1 million market access programme designed to generate new opportunities for UK companies to export offshore wind products and services globally.
The Crown Estate already uses a ‘whole of seabed’ approach to planning seabed use, including for offshore wind, until 2050. In September, the firm, which manages the seabed around England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, announced it would develop a Marine Delivery Routemap per the recommendation of a report published last year by Electricity Networks Commissioner Nick Winser.
