Abstract
In 2016 the North Seas energy ministers signed the “Political Declaration on energy cooperation between the North Seas Countries”. The objective of this declaration is to facilitate cost-effective implementation of offshore renewable energy, in particular offshore wind energy, through voluntary cooperation to ensure a sustainable, secure and affordable energy supply in the North Seas countries. The countries will jointly work on the development of a common environmental assessment framework (CEAF) for cumulative impacts of offshore renewable energy. Under the Political Declaration an Environmental Subgroup has been formed, led by the Netherlands. The Subgroup has the task to develop the CEAF. A framework for an approach has been defined by the Subgroup.
The objective of this report is to provide an inventory and assessment of models and methods used for describing, quantifying and assessing cumulative impacts of offshore wind farms on (populations of) a number of selected receptor species. The outcome of this inventory and assessment will be used to determine a series of best performing methods and models as input to the CEAF.
At the moment of writing there is still ongoing work in many of the North Sea countries on both development of new models and methods as well as on updating existing models and methods. The focus of this report is, however, on readily available and applicable models and methods, as the Environmental Subgroup has the objective to deliver a working ‘prototype’ of the CEAF by the end of 2019.