Recommendations
Energy
1. Create a concrete national Energy Policy Roadmap To Achieveing 2050 Energy targets. Target group: ministries
2. Energy policy targets should be translated into the same units for all NSR countries. This will allow a comparison between countries. Target group: ministries
3. Support the integration of the European internal energy market. Target groups: ministries and energy industry sector
Maritime Spatial Planning
4. Designate spatial areas for offshore renewable energy to safeguard space for future wind parks in suitable locations. This also supports possible cross-border developments of energy production and transmission. Target groups: ministries and planning authorities
5. Include transnational consultation as part of the formal consultation process and to engage with bordering countries at an early stage of the process. Target groups: planning authorities, maritime administrations, and energy industry sector
6. Determine spatial implications of future energy industry trends, including growth of offshore wind production, technical developments of wind turbines, distance to shore, multi-use renewable energy developments, developments in ocean energy, oil and gas and offshore wind farm decommissioning. Target groups: research and research and development projects
7. Development of harmonised planning and technical design criteria for offshore wind farms across all North Sea countries. This will support the harmonisation of planning approaches, especially for future cross-border developments of energy production and transmission. Target groups: planning authorities, research and research development projects, data hosts and energy industry sector
8. Identify planning areas and issues for linear infrastructure and develop planning criteria and proposals for interconnector routes and gates to be integrated in national MSPs. Target groups: ministries, planning authorities, research and research development projects and energy industry sector
9. Develop suggestions for streamlining SEA/EIA processes across the NSR. Target groups: planning authorities and research and research development projects
10. Stronger links need to be made between national marine planning and regional marine planning to determine the need for the involvement of regional and local government in MSP and the range of their maritime issues. Some confusion currently exists surrounding local authorities and their role within MSP. To help avoid this confusion, relevant local authority contacts and MSP issues should be mapped around the North Sea. Target group: planning authorities
Good practice example: The links between regional marine planning and national marine planning are explained in a Scottish example with an International North Sea dimension. Relevant local authority contacts will be mapped around the NSR and MSP issues identified. This report will be uploaded to outputs library section of the NorthSEE webpage on completion.
Future energy industry trends
11. Encourage and support multi-use developments in order to use space more efficiently and sustainably. Target groups: planning authorities, ministries and energy industry sector
12. Suitable locations should be identified for floating wind across countries in the North Sea. Due to the depth profile of the North Sea, the available space able to host fixed foundation offshore wind farms is limited. Floating wind therefore offers a promising alternative. Target groups: ministries, planning authorities, research and research projects
Good practice example: Scotland is working on a report detailing their experience in identifying suitable locations for floating wind in Scotland, in terms of sharing good practice with other North Sea countries. The report will include an international dimension and explain why floating wind would be an interesting option for the North Sea, and what would be needed for such an approach to be transferable to other nations. This report will be uploaded to outputs library section of the NorthSEE webpage (http://www.northsearegion.eu/northsee/) on completion.
13. A transnational oil spill contingency plan should be set up across all NSR countries to aid trans-boundary incidents and fully engage with the emergency response command structures for other member states. Target groups: planning authorities and maritime administrations
14. Identify demand for grid connections, interconnector routes and gates, grid and connection points on land. In line with growth targets of offshore renewable energy, the demand for grid connection is set to increase. Target groups: planning authorities and energy industry sector
Data
15. Use and maintain existing data infrastructure and encourage industry to submit their data to both national data portals and other portals such as EMODNED. Target groups: data hosts, planning authorities and energy industry sector
16. Contribute data to the MSP Challenge Game in order to help generate simulations of the future energy industry trends to determine available marine space. Target groups: data hosts, planning authorities, research and research and development projects, maritime administrations and energy industry sector
17. Share data relevant to oil spill contingency with all NSR countries to aid a fast and efficient response to oil spill emergencies. Target groups: data hosts, planning authorities, research and research projects
Whole project recommendations
18. Carry out a comparative analysis of the different MSP approaches and processes between NSR countries to foster the understanding of other national MSP processes to enhance cross-border cooperation. Target groups: research and research and development projects
19. Establish an over-arching North Sea MSP body or mechanism that can coordinate efforts and facilitate cooperation between NSR countries after the lifetime of the NorthSEE project. Target groups: ministries and planning authorities
20. Create a MSP dictionary which defines general terms to make terminology comparable to facilitate a better understanding of each other’s MSP processes. Target groups: planning authorities, ministries, policy-makers, research and research and development projects
21. Define general steps in an MSP process, where countries can put their specific MSP activities in a timeline. This process timeline will allow a comparison of where countries are with respect to their MSP preparations or revisions. This supports countries to better time their process steps and harmonise any planned transnational consultations. Target groups: planning authorities, ministries, research and research and development projects
22. Cooperate in projects such as the NorthSEE project as an opportunity to improve coordination of a number of aspects related to MSP. Target groups: planning authorities, maritime administrations, energy industry sector, data hosts, research, research and development projects