Improving the Planning for Offshore Wind Energy in Europe
The European Commission has expressed strong support for cross-border MSP co-operation, and has put forth key policy and legislative initiatives in this direction. Two such initiatives are:
•
the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (Directive 2008/56/EC), which provides a legal footing for the principle of ecosystem-based MSP and provides a supportive framework for national initiatives designed to achieve a good status for the environment; and
• the 2008 MSP Roadmap (COM[2008]791), which provides high-level guidance for further development of MSP in the EU countries – this roadmap includes 10 principle guidelines for MSP.
However, given the lack of progress towards transnational MSP, more effective ways of promoting MSP co-operation are evidently needed if transnational MSP is truly to succeed.
Fostering Better Spatial Planning at Sea
Having assessed the current status of MSP implementation in Europe and the potential role existing or new international legislation could play in encouraging further cross-border MSP, the SEANERGY2020 project concluded that measures at EU level are deemed to be the most appropriate way forward.8
that the authors would like to highlight. These relate to, firstly, what type of EU intervention is needed and, secondly, the scale of the intervention.
Concerning the type of intervention, the project assessed different options for promoting transnational MSP at the EU level:
• There are two key recommendations • the use of regional sea conventions;
• MSP working groups; and • an MSP directive.
Taking into account the effectiveness and efficiency of current measures in place to promote transnational MSP, the best way forward seems to be the implementation of an MSP directive.
An MSP directive, arguably, offers a way to overcome the stumbling blocks of other approaches. For example:
• •
Current guidelines have largely failed to indoctrinate cross-border co-operation in national MSP processes. An MSP directive could require some form of co-operation or co-ordination.
Regional sea conventions have a mandate that is focused on one aspect of planning: good environmental status. An MSP directive could take a broader scope to also include economic and social development aspects. Regional sea conventions would become an important pillar of these efforts.
Entirely non-prescriptive approaches (for example, working groups) are limited in their ability to encourage Member States to adopt and progress national MSP practices. An MSP directive could set timeframes for Member States to implement national MSP regimes.
Although politically challenging, an MSP directive focused on encouraging cross-border co-operation – supported by national MSPs – would oblige Member States to open direct communication, without dictating outcomes. This option would give cross-border MSP co-operation
Events Diary 6–7 March 2012
AWEA Regional Wind Energy Summit – Midwest 2012 Chicago, IL, US
www.awea.org/events
21–22 March 2012
AWEA Wind Power Transmission Seminar 2012 Indianapolis, IN, US
www.awea.org/events
27–29 March 2012 AWEA Distributed and Community Wind 2012 Washington DC, US
www.awea.org/events
28–29 March 2012
3rd Wind Turbine Supply Chain USA Conference Chicago, IL, US
www.windenergyupdate.com/supplychainUSA 2–4 April 2012
New Zealand Wind Energy Conference and Exhibition 2012 Hamilton, New Zealand
http://windenergy.org.nz/events
12–13 April 2012
AWEA Wind Finance & Investment Seminar 2012 New York, NY, US
www.awea.org/events
16–19 April 2012 EWEA 2012
Copenhagen, Denmark
http://events.ewea.org
17–18 April 2012
RenewableUK – International Small & Medium Wind 2012 Glasgow, UK
www.renewable-uk.com/events 24–26 April 2012
UWIG Spring Technical Workshop and Annual Meeting San Diego, CA, US
www.uwig.org/annualmeet2012SanDiego.html 7–10 May 2012
IEEE PES Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition Orlando, FL, US
www.ieeet-d.org
13–17 May 2012
World Renewable Energy Congress XII and Exhibition 2012 Denver, CO, US
www.wrecuk.co.uk/wrecxi.html 22–24 May 2012
Wind Energy Electrical Balance-of-Plant Design Conference Madison, WI, US
http://epdweb.engr.wisc.edu Continues on page 55
18
MODERN ENERGY REVIEW – VOLUME 4 ISSUE 1
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84