Offshore wind energy development 

Round 3 will see the biggest windfarms yet to be built around the UK coast.

Since 2000, the Crown Estate has run four leasing rounds for offshore wind which have increased in scale and technical complexity as the industry has developed.

Round 1: December 2000 with small scale projects.

Round 2: July 2003 and included projects that were larger in scale and further away from the shore.

2010: the Crown Estate announced development rights to extend the geographical area of four Round 1 and Round 2 sites. The successful developers of the Round 3 zones were also announced.

Over the past ten years, the RYA has worked together with the maritime community, notably the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the Chamber of Shipping and the General Lighthouse Authorities to limit the impact of offshore renewable developments on recreational navigation.

In doing so the RYA has sought to educate both Government and each windfarm developer individually on the issues concerning recreational boating.

RYA continual engagement

The result has been wide spread acknowledgement of the importance of navigational safety and our continual engagement in consultations both at the strategic level and on a site-by-site basis.

Essentially, we are recognised by the offshore energy industry and the RYA is consistently consulted by each developer directly to represent the interests of recreational boating. We have produced the UK Atlas of recreational boating routes; now in its second edition, which provides recreational data for consideration during the planning, design, and approval process.

Most importantly, the RYA has been instrumental in ensuring that generator towers are suitably lit and marked and that the minimum rotor tip clearance is at least 22m above MHWS which is enough for all but 3% of the recreational fleet below 24m LOA.

Shifting to higher gear

From the outset, it was quite clear to us that the scale of wind energy development was going to shift into a much higher gear. The Government has a challenging target to deliver 15 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020 and expects much of this to be provided by offshore wind.

To date the number and size of offshore windfarms is small and they are well disbursed. In total, there are some 35 Round 1, Round 2 and extensions projects with a total projected output of fewer than 10 GW, but as yet only a little over half of those have been commissioned or are being built.

In January 2009, DECC published a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) report for future offshore energy leasing which among other things, identified up to 33GW of offshore wind generating capacity and provided the genesis for the Round 3 programme.

Round 3 will see the biggest wind farms yet to be built around the coast and it is the location of a number of the nine chosen development zones that have sparked so much recent attention.

In 2009 the RYA provided a full response to the Government’s SEA consultation in which we made clear our considerable concerns on what impact the scale of proposed wind energy development might have for navigational safety. We also commented explicitly on the unsuitability of certain specific sites and sea zones.

A core policy for Government

However, the development of renewable energy installations was a core policy for the previous Government and it more or less swept aside any comments received in response to the consultation.

The current Government continues to regard renewable energy as key theme for its tenure and there is no realistic prospect of varying the zones already allotted for Round 3 offshore windfarm development.

Since the sites were allocated two years ago our focus together with our maritime partners has been on limiting interference with navigation, recreational boating and maritime tourism.

Currently, the developers are undertaking various environmental and engineering studies which include close liaison with stakeholders to define individual projects within the zones and to support the application process for development consent.

The RYA will remain involved at every stage of the application process for each Round 3 project from the time that it is accepted it for IPC examination until a decision is made whether or not to make a development consent order to ensure that the interests of the recreational boating community are fully represented.

Stuart Carruthers, Cruising Manager