Floating Offshore Wind in the Celtic Sea

If you have floating wind turbines not constrained by seafloor depth, you can put them further away from the shore to take advantage of stronger, more consistent winds. On average, floating offshore wind farms can potentially generate 20-50% more energy than nearshore fixed installations. That's the main appeal of FLOW (Floating Offshore Wind).

But FLOW is a relatively new industry with many technical barriers and governance challenges to overcome. PERMAGOV is investigating FLOW-related governance challenges in two case studies, one focusing on the UK context, another on the Irish one. The preliminary results are as follows.

UK case study

• Marine policies are developing in silos, without a clear articulation of roles and responsibilities, or details of how relevant policies, plans, and strategies for energy planning fit together

• Limited coordination between data owners and users lengthens the time needed to make consenting decisions

• Potential for co-existence between FLOW and other uses of marine space in the Celtic Sea is harder to assess due to a lack of transparency in data quality

Ireland case study

• Integrated marine spatial planning in Ireland is lacking. A sectoral approach is still being pursued in the absence of MPA legislation and more spatially planned marine regions

• A truly integrated marine planning regime which considers biodiversity, MPAs and all marine sectors is needed to improve sustainability and reduce conflicts among marine users

• For instance, the fishing industry is worried it could be displaced in areas subject to offshore renewable development because these sites overlap with scallop fishing grounds