Abstract
Consenting and environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures are two of the major non-technical barriers to the further expansion of offshore renewable energy (ORE). Risk-based consenting of offshore renewable energy (RiCORE) is a Horizon 2020 funded project which aims to promote the successful development of ORE in the European Union by developing an environmental risk-based approach to the consenting of ORE projects, where the level of survey requirement is based on the environmental sensitivity of the site, the risk profile of the technology and the scale of the proposed project. The project aims to provide guidance on how to potentially improve consenting processes to ensure cost-efficient delivery of the necessary surveys, clear and transparent reasoning for work undertaken, improving knowledge sharing and reducing the non-technical barriers to the development of the ORE sector. The output from RiCORE includes deliverables over six work packages including four expert workshops conducted with relevant stakeholders (regulators, industry and EIA practitioners). The first workshop considered the practices, methodologies and implementation of pre-consent surveys, post-consent and post-deployment monitoring. The second workshop examined the legal framework in place in the partner Member States (MS) to ensure that the framework developed will be applicable for roll out across these MS and further afield. Two further workshops have involved target stakeholders to develop and refine recommendations and discuss their effective implementation. This communication highlights the main findings and draft recommendations from the RiCORE project to date. For further information and associated deliverable reports visit http://ricore-project.eu.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Updated figures about consented renewable energy projects and projects under review in Scotland are available online: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Licensing/marine/scoping.
- 2.
- 3.
References
Boehlert GW, Gill AB (2010) Environmental and ecological effects of ocean renewable energy development. Oceanography 23(2):68–81
Burger J, Gordon C, Lawrence J, Newman J, Forcey G, Vlietstra L (2011) Risk evaluation for federally listed (roseate tern, piping plover) or candidate (red knot) bird species in offshore waters: a first step for managing the potential impacts of wind facility development on the Atlantic outer continental shelf. Renew Energy 36:338–351
Chou J-S, Ongkowijoyo CS (2014) Risk-based group decision making regarding renewable energy schemes using a stochastic graphical matrix model. Autom Constr 37:98–109
Doremus H (2007) Precaution, science and learning while doing in natural resource management. Wash Law Rev 82:547
Hammar L, Wikström A, Molander S (2014) Assessing ecological risks of offshore wind power on Kattegat cod. Renew Energy 66:414–424
Mascarenhas P, Bald J, Menchaca I, O'Hagan AM, Simas T (2015) RiCORE project novel technology selection. RICORE Project, pp 63
Nunneri C, Lenhart H, Burkhard B, Windhorst W (2008) Ecological risk as a tool for evaluating the effects of offshore wind farm construction in the North Sea. Reg Environ Change 8:31–43
Sparling C, Smith K, Benjamins S, Wilson B, Gordon J, Stringell T, Morris C, Hastie G, Thompson D, Pomeroy P (2015) Guidance to inform marine mammal site characterisation requirements at wave and tidal stream energy sites in Wales. NRW, pp 86
Stelzenmüller V, Ellis JR, Rogers SI (2010) Towards a spatially explicit risk assessment for marine management: assessing the vulnerability of fish to aggregate extraction. Biol Conserv 143:230–238
Wilding TA, Gill AB, Boon A, Sheehan E, Dauvin JC, Pezy J-P, O’Beirn F, Janas U, Rostin L, De Mesel I (2017) Turning off the DRIP (‘Data-rich, information-poor’)—rationalising monitoring with a focus on marine renewable energy developments and the benthos. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 74:848–859
Williamson BJ, Blondel P, Armstrong E, Bell PS, Hall C, Waggitt JJ, Scott BE (2015) A self-contained subsea platform for acoustic monitoring of the environment around marine renewable energy devices-field deployments at wave and tidal energy sites in Orkney, Scotland. IEEE J Ocean Eng 41(1):67–81
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Bald, J. et al. (2020). Risk-Based Consenting of Offshore Renewable Energy Projects (RICORE). In: Ceccaldi, HJ., Hénocque, Y., Komatsu, T., Prouzet, P., Sautour, B., Yoshida, J. (eds) Evolution of Marine Coastal Ecosystems under the Pressure of Global Changes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43484-7_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43484-7_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-43483-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-43484-7
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)