Abstract
The relatively new marine renewable energy (MRE) industry has faced regulatory challenges due to the uncertainty surrounding potential environmental impacts that have often stalled its advancement. While the MRE industry continues to move forward, barriers and challenges remain for environmental permitting (consenting), including a lack of awareness of existing knowledge on environmental effects. A fundamental struggle for MRE is the high costs of baseline environmental assessments and post-installation monitoring and long timelines for obtaining permits, which leads to uncertainty and risk for financing developments. The OES-Environmental1 initiative set out to work with international regulators to decrease such barriers for permitting MRE developments.