Environmental Impact Assessment of Marine Energy Systems

Dear Colleagues,

The Atlantic seaboard offers a vast marine renewable energy (MRE) resource that is still far from being fully exploited. These resources include offshore wind, wave, and tidal. This industrial activity holds considerable potential for enhancing the diversity of energy sources, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and stimulating and diversifying the economies of coastal communities. As stated by the European Commissioner of Energy, Kadri Simson, during Energy Day, in the framework of the climate conference (COP25) held in Madrid (2–13 December 2019), “the European experience shows that the benefits of clean energy go beyond reduced greenhouse gas emissions and a healthier environment. The clean energy transition boosts the economy and creates jobs. The European Green Deal is also a growth strategy”.

In the same framework of COP25 and during Oceans Day, the European Commissioner for the environment, oceans, and fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius explained that “fighting climate change and protecting marine life biodiversity is a centrepiece of EU ocean policy. Due to climate change, our oceans are facing serious challenges, which require an urgent and comprehensive response. But oceans are also a part of the solution”. Therefore, ocean energy is one of the pillars of the EU Blue Growth strategy. Ocean energy could provide clean, predictable, indigenous, and reliable energy and contribute to reaching the objective of making at least 32% of the gross final EU consumption renewable by 2030. As it was underlined by Virginijus Sinkevičius, “Marine renewable energy has an incredible potential. The offshore wind sector is growing strongly enough to compete with traditional energy sources. The emerging technologies such as wave and tidal energy will take the same pathway”.

On the other hand, while the technological development of devices is growing fast, some non-technological barriers could hinder the future development of wind energy (WE) in the EU. These are as follows: (i) the environmental risk and uncertainty about the potential environmental impacts of WE developments; (ii) the need for a MSP approach to overcome the potential competition and conflicts between WE and other marine users; (iii) the complex and long consenting processes and (iv) the opposition among host communities of future WE deployments.

This context coincides with the vision of the Ocean Energy Strategic Roadmap “Building Ocean Energy for Europe” published in November 2016 that identified de-risking environmental consenting as a key challenge and the State of the Science Report released in 2016 by Annex IV of the OES-Environmental group of the International Energy Agency (Copping et al., 2016). The development of fit-for-purpose, effective, and efficient licensing systems for ocean energy projects across Member States is essential at this stage of development of the sector. This was further confirmed as a priority area for cooperation between Member States in the Ocean Energy Implementation Plan adopted by SET-Plan Steering Committee in March 2018.

Reference: Copping, A., N. Sather, L. Hanna, J. Whiting, G. Zydlewski, G. Staines, A. Gill, I. Hutchison, A.M. O’Hagan, T. Simas, J. Bald, S. C., J. Wood, E. Masden. 2016. Annex IV 2016 State of the Science Report: Environmental Effects of Marine Renewable Energy Development Around the World. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy (the Annex IV Operating Agent). 224 pp. http://tethys.pnnl.gov/publications/state-of-the-science-2016.

Dr. Juan Bald
Dr. Andrea Copping
Dr. Teresa Simas
Guest Editor

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