Science and Evidence Advisory Sub-group meeting: 8 February 2022
The focus of this meeting was Technical Information Notes being developed by Aquatera.
A PDF download of this document will be available soon.
In this page
Consenting Strategic Advisory Group
Science and Evidence Advisory Sub-group
8 February 2022
Attendees
Jim McKie (Eurona): facilitator
Sharon Davies (Welsh Government – Marine Licensing)
Morgan Johnson (Welsh Government – SEAGP secretariat)
James Moon (Natural Resources Wales)
Kirsten Ramsey (Natural Resources Wales)
Saul Young (Marine Energy Wales)
Tania Davey (The Wildlife Trusts)
Raeanne Miller (ORJIP)
Sue Barr (Cambrian Offshore)
Kate Smith (Nova Innovation)
Gemma Veneruso (Bangor University)
Aly McCluskie (RSPB)
Meeting
This meeting of SEAGP was focused on the series of technical, topic specific Information Notes (IN’s) being developed by Aquatera, on behalf of SEAGP. The INs are aimed at supporting the consenting of wave and tidal stream projects. The group received a presentation from Aquatera on the progress to date and the timeline for delivery of the INs to the Welsh Government.
The group had an opportunity to discuss the draft INs and agreed they were developing well. It was highlighted that in addition to the climate crisis, the INs should also reflect the biodiversity crisis. This was agreed by the Group and will be reflected in the final INs. The Group also had a useful discussion on terminology used in consenting and what certain things mean to different people, for example what risk retirement means differs depending on the organisation. It was agreed SEAGP could help to establish common understanding of certain terms, and this is to be explored further.
The second half of the meeting was run as a workshop session to inform the final IN on Cumulative Impacts. The aim of this workshop was to draw out the key challenges and considerations around this topic to set out the current state of understanding of how CIA for marine renewable energy in Wales could be approached. Due to the complexity of CIA and infancy of MRE, it was agreed that organisational perspectives were not able to be made at this point it time. However, Natural Resources Wales presented a high-level overview of cumulative impacts assessments (CIA) from its perspective to inform the workshop.
Date of next meeting
14 June 2022