Publication - FOI/EIR release

Offshore Wind Farm location: N4 (Outer Hebrides): EIR release

Published: 2 September 2024
Directorate: Offshore Wind Directorate
Topic: Energy, Public sector
FOI reference: EIR/202400425504
Date received: 7 August 2024
Date responded: 29 August 2024

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Information requested

Any information that was produced to deal with this specific change of site [N4]. Along with any evidence of consultations that were done to gain feedback on the change of site for N4 from 2018 and 2020.

I would like to see any information available, including:

emails, reports or any documentation referring to why the location was changed.
reference to why the location was changed.
the reasons why the original location was no longer considered.
copies of any research or reports outlining why the new location, inshore off the coast of the Outer Hebrides, was considered a suitable alternative.

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested – please refer to items 1 – 8 released to you. In undertaking the search for your request, 2 further documents were found that met your criteria. The first (Extract 1) referenced the area NW3 from the initial Areas of Search as well as the other sites under consideration at that time. The second (Extract 2) references the N4 draft plan option area as well as 21 others. For the purposes of your request I have therefore extracted the relevant parts and included these within the attached Annex below.

Some of the information you have requested is available online:

The consultation analysis report from the Offshore Wind Sectoral Marine Plan Scoping Consultation (13 June 2018 – 18 July 2018) is available at this link: Offshore Wind Sectoral Marine Plan Scoping Consultation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space – this provides a high level summary of how feedback was used to inform the inclusion of new Draft Plan Options. Where respondents have agreed to have their responses to the consultation made public these are available at this link: Published responses for Offshore Wind Sectoral Marine Plan Scoping Consultation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space – please note that respondent names have been redacted in instances where this was requested.

The documents that were consulted upon in the Statutory Consultation for the Draft Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy (18 December 2019 – 25 March 2020) can be found here: Draft Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space. Where respondents have agreed to have their responses to the consultation made public these are available at this link: Published responses for Draft Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space - please note that respondent names have been redacted in instances where this was requested.

Further information on the overall Sectoral Marine Planning Process can be found in the Sustainability Appraisal at this link: Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy: Sustainability Appraisal (www.gov.scot).

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Annex

Extract 1:

The below information has been extracted from a document titled “Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind – SNH Landscape Advice – Constraints and Opportunities for Areas of Search” dated 25th July 2018.

Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind 2018

Areas of Search – Landscape constraints and opportunities
SNH Landscape Advice. July 2018.

Areas of search – opportunities and constraints mapping

NW3
Opportunities	Constraints
Some scope for development exists within the north and northwest of this AoS. Scale of and design guidance for development zone to be informed by coastal visibility mapping.	Located just outside territorial waters - an elongated Area of Search orientated southwest – northeast, running along and partially parallel to the north coast of Lewis. Potential significant impacts on scenic coastline with scattered settlement and with strong frontier qualities
Terrestrial issues Scenic sensitive coastline with scattered settlement (north west Lewis) may present some constraints in terms of onshore cable landing and grid connection.

Extract 2:

The below information has been extracted from a document titled “Draft Offshore Wind Plan – Draft Plan Option Areas – Summary Risk Assessment” dated January 2019.

Overall Risk Level: Low.
Total Area: 200km2 (92% in water depths <60m)
Key constraints (1 medium risk constraint):
The DPO is located inshore, entirely within 15 km of coastline, therefore there is potential for local objection based on visual impacts to seascape.
No low risk constraints.

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