Marine renewables

Marine renewable technologies encompass those harnessing the power of offshore wind, waves and tides. It has been estimated that Scotland possesses 25% of Europe's tidal power, and 10% of Europe's wave power resources. Accordingly, Scottish Ministers and Government are actively promoting this sector so as to help meet Scotland's renewable energy target of 50% of Scotland's electricity demand, through renewable resources, by 2020.

Globally the offshore windfarm industry is more developed than that for wave and tide with commercial windfarms in operation off England and Denmark. Commercial tidal barrages exist in France and Canada, but the few wave and tidal stream turbines deployed to date around the world have been demonstration devices. In Scotland, the EMEC centre in Orkney has been established to enable field testing of prototypes and has capacity for up to 10 separate devices.

In 2009, the Crown Estate initiated a bidding round for developers wishing to obtain seabed leases for commercial wave or tidal arrays in the Pentland Firth and Orkney.  This resulted, in March 2010, in 10 agreements for lease being awarded with a potential generation capacity of 1.2GW, sufficient to power 700,000 homes.

Assessing the impact

We are strongly supportive of a sustainable marine renewables industry, with appropriate development in appropriate locations. Nonetheless there are uncertainties over potential nature and landscapes concerns, and these have the potential to limit development in certain locations. The main ones are:

Offshore Wind

• Impacts on birds (collision risk or displacement)
• Construction noise (eg linked to piling)
• Visual impacts

Wave & Tidal Stream

• Downstream effects linked to removal of energy, such as sedimentation and smothering of habitat
• Acoustic impacts on 'sensitive' species such as marine mammals
• Collision risk between marine mammals (seals, cetaceans), large fish (basking shark) and diving seabirds with operational turbines

All Technologies

• Onshore facilities / coastal infrastructure
• Possible 'barrier effects' of large arrays on marine mammals, fish or birds.

Our role in marine renewables

At SNH we have a number of important roles in relation to the Marine Renewables industry:

1.Influencing the location of proposed schemes. Key to minimising impacts is avoidance of potentially sensitive locations, where natural heritage interests are greatest or likely to be most sensitive to such technologies. Close liaison with Crown Estate, through the leasing process, and Scottish Government, at the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) stage, is vital.

2.Advising on consent applications. Developers of marine renewable energy schemes require consent under various statutes, the Regulators of which depend upon us for advice on potential natural heritage implications, options for avoidance or management of impacts and advice on baseline surveys and monitoring.

3.Undertaking research on interactions with the natural heritage. Sound advice on consent applications is dependant upon an accurate understanding of the species and habitats which might be affected and on how species might interact with operational devices. SNH has a key role in funding or guiding such research and supporting industry and regulators in monitoring of deployed devices.

4.Developing and providing guidance. Based on our research and practical experience working with other industries, SNH plans to develop guidance for developers and regulators on baseline surveys of wildlife and habitats, monitoring of interactions with turbines and prevention or management of impacts.