The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Charles Hendry)

In 2009, DECC completed a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of a draft plan/programme to hold further rounds of offshore leasing for wind and offshore oil and gas licensing in United Kingdom waters (OESEA). Then in 2010, DECC undertook an exercise to update and extend the scope of the OESEA environmental report (OESEA2) and issue it for consultation to enable further licensing/leasing for offshore energy (oil and gas, gas storage including carbon dioxide transport and storage as part of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and offshore marine renewables, including wind, wave and tidal.

The renewable energy elements of the draft plan/programme cover parts of the UK renewable energy zone and the territorial waters of England and Wales; for hydrocarbon gas and carbon dioxide storage it applies to UK waters (territorial waters and the UK gas importation and storage zone); and for hydrocarbon exploration and production it applies to all UK waters.

OESEA2 paves the way for future leasing rounds for marine (wave and tidal) energy. It allows for an installed capacity of up to 33GW of offshore wind—subject to mitigation measures. This is in excess of the central range set out in the UK renewable energy roadmap, which indicates that up to 18GW of offshore wind could be deployed by 2020.

The environmental report highlights that siting and consenting processes for offshore renewable energy developments must remain flexible to allow for technological innovation, including any mitigation measures.

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