Some of the EU’s environmental directives present regulatory burdens that hinder tidal and wave energy sectors growth, said Stephanie Merry, Head of the Renewable Energy Association’s (REA) Ocean Energy Group.
Speaking before the Environmental Audit Committee, holding an inquiry to assess the extent to which EU environmental objectives and policies have succeeded in tackling environmental issues in the UK, Merry said that the EU environmental directives are detrimental to marine energy projects for the small companies when it comes to human resources, cost, and time implications.
Merry said: “One of the things we would like to happen is for the regulatory burden of these environmental directives to be proportionate to the size of the project. Also, we would like to see the positive impacts of marine projects included in the environmental impact assessment because marine renewable energy is trying to do positive things for the environment. At the moment it’s all about the negative impacts.”
Merry cited the 30 MW project off the Isle of Wight that had to submit an environmental impact assessment study which came to 21 volumes and to the cost of over £1 million.
She also mentioned Marine Current Tubine’s project in Strangford Lough that was initially £10 million project and then it had to implement £2 million worth of environmental monitoring on top of that.
“This disincentivises investment in the sector and diverts money elsewhere. The issue of who pays for the monitoring needs to be dealt with – I think it would be very helpful if either the UK government or even the EU paid for such strategic monitoring, because they’ve made marine energy part of the strategic energy technologies. It is strategic for the EU,” said Merry.
Merry added that most of the EU’s environmental directives were brought in before the Renewable Energy Directive in 2007, and that there are conflicts between the two. She said that the EU environmental directives are erecting barriers to UK achieving its 2020 target.
This evidence session was held to inform the debate ahead of the referendum on EU membership that the UK Government has committed to holding by the end of 2017, following a renegotiation of the UK’s terms of membership.
The inquiry looked at the merits and drawbacks of determining environmental policy at an EU level for the UK and, at the implications of such policies on the UK environment.