Greening Blue Energy - BioTools For Business

1 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
Directive 85/337/EEC (EIA, amended by
Directives 97/11/EC , 2003/35/EC and
2009/31/EC )
According to Directive 85/337/EEC of the
European Commission on the assessment
of the effects of certain public and private
projects on the environment, wind energy
production projects do not require an EIA
by default. The Member States determine
through:
• a case-by-case examination,
• thresholds or criteria set by the
Member State
• whether the project shall be made
subject to an assessment.
An exception to this may the use of underwater
high voltage electricity transmission
cables, but this will be the case only if it
involves “Construction of overhead electrical
power lines with a voltage of 220 kV
or more and a length of more than 15 km”
that would therefore require an EIA.
An EIA should describe the project in
terms of its:
• physical characteristics
• land-use requirements
• characteristics of the production
processes
• expected residues and emissions
• alternatives
• significant perceived threats to the
environment
• and a mitigation plan.
Areas that might be affected by the proposed
project, are identified by the directive
as the minimum threshold. These
include:
• population
• fauna
• flora
• soil
• water
64 GREENING BLUE ENERGY - Identifying and managing biodiversity risks and opportunities of offshore renewable energy
• air
• climatic factors
• material assets, including architectural
and archaeological heritage,
• landscape
• and the inter-relationship between the
above factors
For those project impacts that exert direct
or indirect, secondary, cumulative, short,
medium or long-term, permanent or temporary,
positive or negative effects should
be described as well.