Abstract
Facilitating offshore renewables – wind, wave and tidal – through marine spatial planning (MSP) is the core objective of the Intelligent Energy Europe funded project Seanergy 2020. Seanergy 2020 does this by formulating and promoting policy recommendations on how to best address and remove MSP obstacles to offshore renewable energy generation, in order to implement the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/ EC). In doing so, it seeks to promote a more integrated and coordinated approach to MSP: that is, an approach that extends beyond national borders. This is particularly important since many human activities as well as ecological concerns at sea have a cross-border dimension. The geographical scope of the Seanergy 2020 project includes the Atlantic Coast and Irish Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the North Sea.
The Seanergy 2020 project has centred its work on three main work packages or phases: firstly, analysis of existing national MSP practices and their impact on offshore renewable deployment, and identification of best practices (work package 2); secondly, analysis of different international MSP instruments and their compatibility with offshore renewable deployment (work package 3); and thirdly, analysis of the challenges and opportunities of moving from a national to a transnational MSP approach (work package 4). This third phase compiles findings and recommendations and draws up the overall project recommendations.
This report represents the final publication of the Seanergy 2020 project and presents findings from each of these three sections or phases of the project as well as overall project recommendations.