Greening Blue Energy - BioTools For Business

5 Conclusions and recommendations
5.1 Strategic and Governance issues
Ocean resources are limited; therefore comprehensive
integrated approaches are essential to manage
human activities. Large-scale offshore renewable
energy developments constitute a relatively new
challenge for integrated coastal management
strategies and marine spatial planning. Wind farm
development within territorial waters should therefore
be incorporated within integrated coastal zone
management (ICZM) and spatial planning instruments,
where applicable.
Coordination of conservation measures (e.g. Natura
2000 designation) and wind power development
should be facilitated through enhanced information
exchange among authorities. The relatively
rapid rate of development for wind power could
otherwise forestall the often complex processes
of research, evaluation and designation of marine
protected areas. As wind farms exclude trawling ,
both spatial planning and nature protection may
under certain circumstances benefit from combining
conservation measures with offshore wind farm
development.
Impacts on mammals and fish during construction
activities (e.g. piling) largely depend on the availability
of suitable alternative habitats. Thus, to
minimise cumulative effects of concurrent develop-
ment activities, both the timing and areas for construction
by different developers need to be coordinated
at central level.
Spatial planning should be fully utilised- As impacts
from offshore wind farms may extend several kilometres
from the development area – for example,
appropriate safety/buffer zones should be applied
in the spatial planning process, and biodiversity
hotspots (or areas known to be vulnerable habitats)
should be avoided.
5.2 Areas of uncertainty and points
to address
Substantial knowledge gaps and uncertainties still
exist in this area, and these hamper the effective
assessment of impacts and the issuing of some
construction and operational permits. For example,
there is a considerable paucity of ecological
baseline data, which limits EIAs and monitoring
programmes. If a pre-cautionary approach is not
applied, this could jeopardise habitats, species and
ecosystems, including those of high conservation
interest. The number of targeted biological and
environmental surveys in relation to the number
of offshore energy developments is, nevertheless,
increasing. Continued and enhanced monitoring
of carefully selected environmental (biotic and
abiotic) parameters during construction and operation
of offshore renewable energy farms will in time
generate more reliable data on both the adverse
and potentially positive effects of offshore wind
power development. The opportunity for identifying
and achieving concurrence among stakeholders
on areas to be considered for exploitation could
thus be facilitated, and the development of mitigating
construction methods and other measures
to protect the marine environment could also be
enhanced.
It will, however, take several years for new monitoring
programmes to provide a comprehensive
overview of environmental risks and potential.
Caution is further advised when, for example,
applying research or data generated in temperate
regions to other regions such as the tropics, as
there are major differences in regulating factors,
species and habitats at different latitudes. Uncertainty
about predicting consequences also increases
with the scale of wind farm development, in
terms of both the size and number of installations.
5.3 Improving use of impact
assessments
Some EIA standards request up to two complete
successive years of data before construction of
Identifying and managing biodiversity risks and opportunities of offshore renewable energy - GREENING BLUE ENERGY 29
Conclusions