UK to boost wind, wave and tidal power

LONDON, England, March 21, 2007. The UK government has published plans to streamline development of offshore wind, wave and tidal power projects while it protects wildlife.

“The proposals in the Marine Bill white paper are a first for the UK and would raise planning for the management and protection of our seas to a world-leading level,” says environment secretary David Miliband. “Protecting our seas is one of the biggest environmental challenges after climate change and the two are closely linked.”

The white paper policy document is open for public consultation until June, and proposes a strategic marine planning system to set national objectives and priorities for offshore developments. It will speed the licensing process and create a new body to ensure that proposals for wind and wave developments do not threaten wildlife.

Proposals in ‘A Sea Change: A Marine Bill White Paper’ are focused on five areas and are designed to “help us deliver our European and international commitments, alongside domestic priorities, such as the target we have to achieve 10% of energy needs from renewable sources by 2010,” it explains. “There is increasing demand on marine space and resources, partly because of both the expansion of some industries, such as the transportation of goods by ship, and also newer developments such as offshore windfarms.”

“These changes in marine use have meant that conflicts can arise between different activities,” it adds. “We want to plan ahead to try to address these conflicts, and also to think about potential future marine uses, such as tidal and wave energy generation, at the same time.”

“Through the Marine Bill, we will facilitate achievement of this target (of 10% of electricity from renewables by 2010) by simplifying the licensing process for marine renewable energy installations,” it explains. Construction of most offshore green power facilities in Britain has significant overlap in approval and licensing, and “we believe that since building an offshore renewable energy installation and connecting it to the grid is a discreet project, developers ought to be able to apply to do that through a single process, consistent with our one project: one licence principle.”

“We therefore intend to create a single licensing system for the construction of offshore renewable energy installations, where responsibility for both existing licences currently lies within the same administration,” it continues. “The marine environmental controls that currently apply to the construction of offshore renewable energy installations under FEPA fall short of modern better regulation requirements.”

“This white paper gives people the chance to help the government do what is needed to effectively balance all of our marine needs and demands, and to achieve our vision for a clean, healthy, safe, productive, and biologically diverse marine environment,” says Miliband. The document's 12-week consultation period will conclude on June 8.

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