Offshore wind energy - draft sectoral marine plan: regional locational guidance

1 Introduction

1.1 Background

1.1.1 The Scottish Government is developing a plan for future commercial scale offshore wind development in Scottish waters in the period to 2050. The plan builds on the previous draft plan for offshore wind published in 2013^[1] and 2011 offshore wind plan.^[2] The plan seeks to provide opportunities for conventional fixed bottom technologies and for deep water wind technologies which may become commercially viable over this time period.

1.1.2 The geographical scope of the plan covers Scottish Waters (0‑200 nautical miles). This includes Scottish Territorial Waters (0-12 nautical miles) and the Scottish Offshore Marine Area (12-200 nautical miles) which is executively devolved to Scottish Ministers under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 (Figure 1).

1.1.3 The plan is being developed in accordance with Marine Scotland's sectoral marine planning process (Figure 2). The National Marine Plan refers to this process in plan policy RENEWABLES 1. Once adopted, it is intended that the plan will also be reflected in the preparation or revision of relevant Regional Marine Plans.

1.1.4 An informal public consultation on the initial stages of development of the draft Plan was held in June 2018.^[3] This included consultation on the following scoping documents:

• Context Report;^[4]
• Social and Economic Impact Assessment scoping report;^[5]
• Habitats Regulations Appraisal Pre-screening Report;^[6]
• Strategic Environmental Assessment Screening and Scoping Report;^[7] and
• Areas of Search Scoping Report.^[8]

1.1.5 Currently the majority of offshore wind farms have been built using conventional fixed bottom substructure technology. The maximum depth considered economically and technically feasible for these to be installed is approximately up to 60m of depth.^[9] This depth requirement significantly limits the amount of seabed space that can be exploited in Scottish waters. New floating wind turbine technology attached to the seabed by chains and anchors can potentially open up new areas of sea as they are theoretically not limited by depth. At present the maximum depth considered for offshore deployment is 800m as expressed by Statoil in reference to its Hywind technology.^[10] Construction and deployment prices of floating foundations may eventually compete with those of fixed bottom technologies,^[11] if floating wind sees a similarly rapid cost reduction to that which has taken placed in the fixed foundation wind industry.

1.1.6 In order to provide space for the potential development of fixed bottom and deep water offshore wind options, the Areas of Search Scoping study considered the full range of water depths down to 800m. Full details on the criteria applied in the development of the Areas of Search are provided in the Scoping report.^[12]

1.1.7 The Scoping report identified an initial 24 Areas of Search (AoS) (Figure 3) that could provide suitable locations for conventional and deep-water wind options. These 24 AoS were subsequently reviewed and updated, resulting in the identification of 17 Draft Plan Options (DPO) taken forwards for further assessment (Figure 3 and reproduced to provide increased detail in a larger image in Figure 4). A full description of the process undertaken to identify the 17 DPOs is included in Section 1.2 below.

Figure 1 Map of Scottish zone

Figure 2 Marine Scotland's sectoral marine planning process

Figure 3 Evolution of AoS to DPOs

Figure 4 RLG offshore wind regions and draft plan option areas

1.2 Identification of Draft Plan Options

1.2.1 The sectoral marine planning process (as shown in Figure 2) is an iterative process, informed through stakeholder engagement and evidence from the related social, economic and environmental assessments. All of the information and consultation feedback gathered supports the Scottish Ministers in identifying Draft Plan Options (DPOs) to progress to the next phase of the plan process.

1.2.2 The DPOs have emerged through an examination of spatial data considerations in addition to advice and other related information provided by members of the Steering Groups, as well as stakeholders

1.2.3 The key stages of the planning process in relation to the identification of the Draft Plan Options, described in greater detail below, are:

• Opportunity and Constraint (O&C) Analysis - Iteration 1;
• Opportunity and Constraint (O&C) Analysis - Iteration 2 - Single Issue Constraint Analysis;
• Scoping Consultation;
• Opportunity and Constraint (O&C) Analysis - Iteration 3; and
• Identification of Draft Plan Options.

Opportunity and Constraint (O&C) Analysis - Iteration 1

1.2.4 The identification of initial AoS was carried out through the use of an O&C analysis. It built upon previous work carried out by Marine Scotland Science in 2011 and the production of draft regional locational guidance for potential deep water floating offshore wind test sites in 2014. The analysis was iterative, so updates could be incorporated as required in order to reflect stakeholder feedback.

1.2.5 Full details of the O&C analysis can be found in the AoS scoping report published for consultation in 2018. The O&C analysis sought to identify areas of opportunity for the future development of offshore wind, whilst also identifying areas that minimised potential negative impacts to the environment, other sectors and users of the sea. This analysis was completed through the use of GIS and numerous spatial data resources.

Opportunity and Constraint (O&C) Analysis - Iteration 2

1.2.6 Sectoral engagement workshops were held in spring 2018. The AoS were then refined with consideration to specific spatial issues and feedback from the workshops.

1.2.7 This refinement process identified a range of distinct AoS (Figure 3). As the draft Plan is technology neutral, no commercial or technology specific information was used in this refinement process.

Scoping Consultation - Screening and Scoping Reports

1.2.8 Scottish Ministers then consulted on the screening and scoping stages of the Plan process during June and July 2018. Screening and scoping reports were prepared and published online for the SEA, HRA and SEIA alongside the AoS scoping study.

Opportunity and Constraint (O&C) Analysis - Iteration 3

1.2.9 Iteration 3 of the O&C analysis was undertaken, which considered the responses received during the Scoping Consultation. For more details see the Consultation Analysis.

1.2.10 The AoS were refined with consideration to the outputs of the Iteration 3 O&C Analysis. As a result, certain AoS were either removed or refined to avoid/incorporate certain areas of Scottish Waters.

1.2.11 This stage also considered the areas of seabed proposed by stakeholders via the scoping consultation. A number of the areas proposed overlapped with existing AoS, while others overlapped with areas with higher levels of constraint or entirely new areas. This information was provided to Scottish Ministers to inform their decision on the selection of DPOs.

1.2.12 Upon review of the above information, Scottish Ministers identified areas to move forward in the plan process. It should be noted that some additional areas were included at this stage, where there was significant stakeholder interest, but also increased constraint. The Sustainability Appraisal stage will assess these areas in greater detail.

Identification of Draft Plan Options

1.2.13 The 22 revised Areas of Search were made available to the Sectoral Marine Plan Project Board and two Project Steering Groups for consideration and comment.

1.2.14 Responses from both the Board and Steering Groups, together with the outputs of the initial assessments, were presented to Scottish Ministers to inform their decision on which AoS should progress to the Sustainability Appraisal for more detailed assessment.

1.2.15 Seventeen revised AoS were selected as DPOs (Figure 4, Table 1).

1.2.16 This Regional Locational Guidance (RLG) represents a key stage in the development of the draft plan by providing a strategic baseline for environmental, technical, socio-economic and planning issues in relation to the offshore renewable energy regions of Scotland and the DPOs.

1.2.17 The RLG will be used:

• To provide high level information in relation to the DPOs taken forwards into the assessment phase of the draft plan;
• To provide a high level baseline of information used to support assessment of the DPOs in the SEA and SEIA which will build on the information contained herein; and
• To inform key stakeholders and other interested parties of the key regional issues in relation to developing offshore wind energy in Scottish Waters.

1.2.18 The DPOs identified (Figure 4) have been subject to strategic environmental assessment (SEA), habitats regulations appraisal (HRA), socio-economic assessment and consultation analysis. The outputs of this work will inform a future leasing round for commercial scale offshore wind energy development in Scottish Waters and ensure developments are brought forward in the most sustainable locations.

1.2.19 Section 2 of the RLG provides an overview of the key strategic issues in relation to the Scottish Marine Area.

1.2.20 Sections 3 to 7 provide a baseline for each of the five offshore regions. For each topic, where appropriate information is available, the RLG provides an overview of the baseline topic for each region and information in relation to the relevant Areas of Search identified within each Region.

Table 1 Offshore wind areas of search

Region	DPO	Area km²
South West	SW1	292
West	W1	1107
North	N1	1163
	N2	560
	N3	1106
	N4	200
North East	NE1	776
	NE2	464
	NE3	339
	NE4	440
	NE5	496
	NE6	699
	NE7	1027
	NE8	401
East	E1	3816
	E2	1287
	E3	474