Abstract
This document provides a Non-Technical Summary of the results of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the Offshore Renewable Energy Development Plan (OREDP) for Ireland. The OREDP, which is the subject of this SEA, includes scenarios for the development of offshore renewable energy in Irish waters up to 2030, including an initial review in 2015 and a full review in 2020. The main issues covered in the SEA are listed below. This list is derived from the SEA Directive and refined to make it relevant to the coastal and marine environment. The effects of offshore wind and marine renewable energy developments on these issues/subjects are summarised in Section 6: Assessment Results. The issues covered in the SEA include:
- Soil and water (substrate including sediment, geology, geomorphology and coastal processes, water quality).
- Biodiversity, flora and fauna (protected sites and species including sea birds, fish, marine mammals and reptiles, benthic ecology).
- Cultural heritage including archaeological heritage (marine and coastal archaeological and historical natural/built environment including wrecks and submerged landscapes).
- Population and human health (commercial fishing, aquaculture, shipping and navigation including navigational safety, ports and harbours, recreation and tourism, radar interference and military practice areas).
- Material assets (cables and pipelines, coastal infrastructure, oil and gas infrastructure, aggregates, dredging and disposal areas).
- Landscape/Seascape (seascape quality and character).
- Climatic factors (Renewable energy developments, CO2 emissions, carbon storage and responding to climate change e.g. threat of sea level rise on coastal infrastructure.