5.6. Summary: No Alternative Solutions

  1. The Applicant has undertaken an extensive design, optioneering and mitigation process, which underpins the project design envelope for the Array.
  2. Section 5 of this document outlines the range of potential alternatives considered by the Applicant in determining the Array’s project design envelope, including numerous alternative locations and design options. This thorough consideration of potential alternatives demonstrates that there are no feasible alternative solutions to the Array.
  3. The results of this detailed consideration are summarised in Table 5.8   Open ▸ . The Array is an essential part of the future Scottish and UK generation mix and there are no feasible alternative solutions to this.
Table 5.8:
Summary of Potential Alternatives Discounted for the Array

Table 5.8: Summary of Potential Alternatives Discounted for the Array

6. Imperative Reasons of Overriding Public Interest

6.1. Introduction

6.1.1. Overview

  1. This section provides the evidence which demonstrates that the Scottish Ministers can be satisfied that there are imperative reasons of overriding public interest (IROPI) to authorise the Array.
  2. It is concluded that there is a compelling case that the Array must be carried out for IROPI, which are fundamental to achieve the Scottish and UK Governments’ legal commitments and policy objectives.

6.1.2. Supporting Information

  1. The IROPI case is supported by and draws on the following documents which accompany the planning application for the Array:
  • Ossian OWFL (2024a). Ossian Array Environmental Impact Assessment Report:

–           Project Description (volume 1, chapter 3)

–           Site Selection and Consideration of Alternatives (volume 1, chapter 4)

–           Stakeholder Engagement and Consultation (volume 1, chapter 5)

–           Climatic Effects (volume 2, chapter 17)

–           Commitments Register (volume 3, appendix 6.3)

  • Ossian OWFL (2024b). Ossian Array: Report to Inform Appropriate Assessment.  
  • Ossian OWFL (2024c). Planning and Need Statement
  1. In addition, this IROPI case draws from the other sections of this Derogation Case, particularly the Project Objectives (see section 5.2).

6.1.3. Regulations

  1. Regulation 29(1) of the Habitats Regulations provides: “if it is satisfied that, there being no alternative solutions, the plan or project must be carried out for imperative reasons of overriding public interest  (which, subject to paragraph (2), may be of a social or economic nature), the [Scottish Ministers] may agree to the plan or project notwithstanding a negative assessment of the implications for the site.”.
  2. Regulation 29(2) states:
  3.  “Where the site concerned hosts a priority natural habitat type or a priority species, the reasons referred to in paragraph (1) must be either:
  • reasons relating to human health, public safety or beneficial consequences of primary importance to the environment; or
  • any other imperative reasons of overriding public interest”
  1. It is important to note that in the case of the Array the RIAA does not identify any Adverse Effects on Integrity (AEOI) in respect of priority habitats or species.

6.1.4. Approach to IROPI

  1. The Applicant has used the above referenced guidance to identify the following principles relevant to establishing an IROPI case. The following sections of this part of the Applicant’s Derogation Case are structured around addressing these principles in order to establish that the Array must be carried out for IROPI.
  • Question 1: Are the reasons for undertaking the Array imperative?
  • Question 2: Are the reasons in the public interest?
  • Question 3: Are the reasons for undertaking the Array long term?
  • Question 4: Are the reasons for undertaking the Array overriding?

6.2. Question 1: Are the Reasons for Undertaking the Array Imperative?

  1. There is an imperative need for the Array. Climate change is one of the defining global risks of our era, and challenging net zero targets have been set by the Scottish and UK Governments to try to address the global warming threat. The Array will help to tackle climate change and make an important and significant contribution to those targets. In addition, energy security and stability, free of fossil fuels and volatile international markets, is an important aim for Scottish and UK energy policy. Addressing climate change and energy security are “reasons relating to human health, public safety or beneficial consequences of primary importance to the environment” which constitute IROPI.

6.2.1. Climate Change

  1. Climate change poses a risk to the health and safety of Scottish and UK citizens. The gravity of this risk has been made plain in recent reports by the Internation Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC’s. AR6 Report (part 1) provided new estimates of the chances of crossing the global warming level at 1.5°C in the next decade. It concludes that, without immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in GHG, limiting warming close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach. The UN Secretary General described the AR6 Report as a “Code Red for humanity”.
  2. AR6 Report (part 2) was accompanied by a press release which described a narrowing window for action to address the threat to human wellbeing: “The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.”
  3. AR6 Report (part 3) confirms the harmful and permanent consequences of failing to limit the rise of global temperatures. The press release highlights that the “next two years are critical” (page 1) and that, limiting warming to around 1.5°C, would require “global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by 43% by 2030” (page 2).
  4. Taken together this messaging of the AR6 report makes clear that significant reductions in CO2 emissions are required globally, at scale, and in the near term, both within this decade and into the next.
  5. The most recent UN Emissions Gap Report (2023) also stresses the gravity of the risk of climate change to the environment and consequently to humans and all life. This report was published in advance of COP28 and provides the annual independent science-based assessment of the gap between the pledged greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reductions and the reductions required to align with the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. It sets out that not only have temperature records continued to be broken, but global greenhouse emissions and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased since 2022.   It also sets out that energy is the dominant source of GHG emissions, currently accounting for 86% of global CO2 emissions. On page 1 of the report it is stated that the world is witnessing a disturbing acceleration in the number, speed and scale of broken climate records.
  6. Both Scottish and UK Governments are committed to climate change mitigation through a suite of time-bound legislation and policy commitments for decarbonisation. As set out in chapter 3 of the Planning and Needs Statement, the need to address climate change is the principal precept behind a long list of legislative acts and national policies. A selection of these are summarised in Table 6.1   Open ▸ . Full details can be found in chapter 3 of the Planning and Needs Statement.

 

Table 6.1:
Selected Climate Change and Renewable Energy Acts and Policies in the UK and Scotland

Table 6.1: Selected Climate Change and Renewable Energy Acts and Policies in the UK and Scotland

 

  1. These commitments emphasise that offshore wind must be delivered at significant pace if decarbonisation targets are to be met. The imperative nature of offshore wind in this context is underlined by National Policy Statements EN1 and EN3 (which are of material consideration to Scottish Ministers).  The NPS classify offshore wind as Critical National Infrastructure (CNP), and state that “starting from the position that energy security and decarbonising the power sector to combat climate change … are capable of amounting to imperative reasons of overriding public interest (IROPI) for HRAs … for CNP Infrastructure.”
  2. The assessment estimates that the Project will produce approximately 337,457,750 MWh of low carbon electricity during its 35-year operational phase.  Over its lifecycle the Project will produce an emission intensity of 4.4 gCO2e/kWh. The electricity generated by the Project will save up to 143,082,086 tCO2e from being emitted into the atmosphere that would otherwise have been emitted from conventional, higher carbon emitting forms of energy generation (i.e. fossil fuels). When construction, operation and maintenance and decommissioning phase GHG emissions are included the Project will save up to 131,667,016 tCO2e from being emitted into the atmosphere over its lifecycle (net emissions). 
  3. It will take approximately 2 years to ‘pay back’ the GHG emissions relating to the construction phase from the start of operation. This ‘payback’ period is in line with both the UK and Scottish Governments’ net zero ambitions. Due to the carbon savings that the operation and maintenance phase will produce from low carbon electricity generation, the Project is assessed in the EIA Report as having a significant beneficial effect on the climate.

6.2.2. Energy Security and Affordability

  1. Reducing our dependency on foreign hydrocarbons is an imperative for security of supply and controlling electricity costs (see Planning and Need Statement).
  2. The ECJ confirmed in 2019[11] that ensuring the security of the electricity supply constitutes an IROPI. The ECJ has held that security of energy supply in the EU is one of the fundamental objectives of EU policy in the field of energy. The ECJ went further, saying that, in any event “the objective of ensuring the security of electricity supply in a Member State at all times constitutes an imperative reason of overriding public interest, within the meaning of that provision” [12] [emphasis added].
  3. As noted by the UK government in the BESS, the imperative to ensure security of energy supply has been compounded by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This has had a direct impact on the affordability of energy in the UK.
  4. The urgency for an electricity system which is self-reliant and not dependent on fossil fuels is enormous, to protect consumers from high and volatile energy prices, and to reduce opportunities for destructive geopolitical intrusion into national electricity supplies and economics. The energy security and affordability benefits associated with developing electricity supplies which are not dependent on volatile international markets and are located within the UK’s national boundaries are more important than ever.
  5. The Offshore Wind Industry has a strong track record of driving down the cost of electricity. This is evidenced by the falling strike price due to the competitive CfD scheme.  
  6. Upon gaining consent, Ossian will apply for a CfD. This scheme is subject to a competitive tender mechanism, whereby projects must submit ‘sealed bids’ of strike prices in an auction for a fixed quantity of funding. This process will be key to ensuring that the floating wind technology at Ossian will be built out at the lowest possible cost to the consumer.  

6.2.3. Conclusion on Imperative

  1. Amidst the risk that climate change poses to the health and the safety of Scottish and UK citizens, the Array is clearly imperative due to the near- and long-term contribution it will make to decarbonisation of the energy sector and achieving Scottish and UK net zero commitments. In addition, reducing Scotland’s and the wider UK’s dependency on hydrocarbons has important security of supply, electricity cost and fuel poverty avoidance benefits which urgently require to be realised now. Those actions already urgently required in the fight against climate change are now required more urgently for global political stability and insulation against dependencies on rogue nation states.