Britain to regulate access to offshore windfarms and wave facilities

LONDON, UK, December 6, 2006 (Refocus Weekly)

The British government will examine safety zones around offshore renewable energy installations, with a focus on windfarms and wave/tidal devices.

A consultation process is seeking comments on implementation of provisions in the Energy Act 2004 relating to a safety zone scheme, and the draft regulations specify standard exemptions from the prohibition on vessels entering an established safety zone. The closing date for comments is February 2.

“It is government policy to enable vessels to navigate within renewable energy sites where it would be safe to do so,” the document explains. “Our starting presumption is that during the construction and decommissioning phases, it might be reasonable to establish a safety zone of 500 m around any installation on which construction or decommissioning work is being undertaken.”

During the operational phase, a safety zone of 50 m around each installation might be appropriate, although this zone may need to be tested under specific circumstances for each site. Any safety zone exceeding 500 m would need to be approved by the International Maritime Organisation.

The consultation applies to territorial waters adjacent to Great Britain and to waters in the UK Renewable Energy Zone. The comments may impact the draft regulations prior to finalization and approval by Parliament next spring.

A safety zone is an area of water around a wind turbine or wave/tidal device, where vessels are excluded and where activities can be regulated. The safety zone is designed to prevent collisions with renewable energy installations by vessels navigating in their vicinity.

The regulations would detail exemptions to the prohibition on entering a safety zone, and obtaining information from the fishing industry on types of fishing activity currently taking place within windfarms and their views on what types of fishing might safely continue in such installations.

Experience is based on the construction of offshore windfarms, and the document questions if wave/tidal devices will be constructed in a different way, which would require a different approach to safety zones. It asks if a 50 m safety zone is reasonable, and if the requirements for publicising each application is workable.

The regulations propose a 28-day minimum period for objecting to a proposal for a safety zone and a charge of £2,000 for making an application for such a zone. It would be a criminal offence for vessels to enter or remain in a safety zone unless permitted to do so or if exempted, such as official government vessels and vessels in distress.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea allows the UK and other coastal countries to establish reasonable safety zones around artificial islands, installations and structures beyond territorial waters. At the national level, the safety zone scheme is set out in the Energy Act 2004 for waters between the mean low water mark and the seaward limits of the territorial seas.

Developers of offshore windfarms complete construction work in phases, and data on fishing activity within existing windfarms and in strategic areas in the Thames Estuary, Greater Wash and the North West (designated for the construction of windfarms) is limited and the consultation wants to solicit information on fishing activity in those areas by canvassing the fishing industry.

The energy department has noted strong opposition to the introduction of compulsory life-long exclusion zones, which the Maritime & Coastguard Agency argues would permanently sterilise 200 km2 of sea for a windfarm of 300 turbines. “Given that the total number of turbines presently planned for windfarms in UK waters is in the region of 2,500, this would effectively sterilise a total area of sea in excess of 1,660 km2,” the report notes, and MCA believes that this would cause “significant disruption to navigation, particularly in the Thames Estuary with its restricted navigation routes.”

The life-long exclusion “might also lead to increased costs to the shipping industry, together with increased carbon emissions, as vessels would need to burn additional fuel to sail around the windfarms using greater margins of avoidance,” it continues. “There may be potential benefits from a wider exclusion of vessels from windfarms, particularly fishing vessels; however the evidence as to the environmental benefits in terms of protecting areas of sea from on-going activities once the windfarm is constructed is as yet uncertain.”

“It is unlikely that the cost of complying with the proposed regulations will have a significant impact on small firms in the offshore renewables industry,” it concludes. There are 50 firms in the UK involved in the development of wave and tidal devices, and their costs to apply for a safety zone and comply with the publication requirements are “unlikely to be a significant element of the overall development costs of a project.”

“Our objective is to put in place regulations which establish a clear, open and transparent application process for safety zones that allows all interested parties to participate in the decision making process, whilst at the same time avoiding placing overly onerous administrative and cost burdens on the applicant,” the document explains. “The ‘do nothing’ option is unacceptable in our view, as the department would be failing to address potentially serious navigational and public safety issues.” The compulsory 500 m exclusion zones around all facilities at all stages is also not acceptable “due to its inflexibility and potential impact upon mariners and other users of the sea.”

Among the groups consulted in the development of the draft regulations are Airtricity, Amec Wind Energy, British Wind Energy Association, Ecofys, EDF Energy, Elsam Engineering, E.ON UK Renewables, GE Wind Energy, Marine Current Turbines, Npower Renewables, Ocean Power, Offshore Wave Energy, Renewable Energy Association, Scottish Power, Shell WindEnergy, Wave Dragon, Wavegen, British Ports Association, National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, Royal Yachting Association, The Crown Estate, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, WWF-UK and the Royal National Lifeboat Institute.

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