6.3. Step 2: Are the Reasons for Undertaking the Array in the Public Interest?

  1. The Array serves a clear public interest in terms of its contribution to decarbonisation and energy security. It will contribute to meeting Scottish and UK net zero laws and policies, which are designed to serve fundamental public interests. Those public interests, in short, are:
  • Rapid decarbonisation to mitigate climate change
  • Ensuring security of energy supply at affordable cost
  1. The Defra (2012) guidance notes that “projects which enact or are consistent with national strategic plans or policies, may be more likely to show IROPI”. For the reasons set out above and in the Planning and Need Statement, the Array will make an important contribution to meeting Scottish and UK climate change legal and policy commitments, including the SMP, the Scottish Offshore Wind Policy Statement, the Scottish Energy Strategy, the UK Net Zero Strategy and the UK Offshore Wind Sector Deal, as well as the targets set by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, the Climate Change Act 2008 (as amended) and the Net Zero Strategy.
  2. The Applicant is  a private entity. However, the Array clearly serves the public interest, and all previously granted Scottish and UK offshore wind sector derogation cases acknowledge the essential reality that the strategy to harness Scotland’s and the UK’s offshore wind resource to produce renewable electricity can only be delivered through the private sector.
  3. EC (2019) guidance acknowledges that whether the project is promoted by public or private entities is irrelevant to determining whether the public interest is served in determining IROPI:  "As regards the ‘other imperative reasons of overriding public interest’ of social or economic nature, it is clear from the wording that only public interests, irrespective of whether they are promoted either by public or private bodies, can be balanced against the conservation aims of the Directive."

6.3.1. Conclusion on Public Interest

  1. The Array’s contribution to decarbonisation of the energy sector and security of supply are clearly in the public interest. The Array fulfils a suite national and international law and policies designed to serve fundamental public interests. In supporting and delivering long term low carbon energy and contributing to security of supply and affordability of energy, the Array will serve public interests.

6.4. Step 3: Are the Reasons for Undertaking the Array in the Long Term Interest?

  1. The imperative public interests identified earlier in this report are long-term Scottish and UK interests. The decarbonisation of society including the means of generating energy is a process that has been ongoing for decades and will continue for decades to come. The legal commitments to achieve net zero by 2045/2050 respectively are long term. However, net zero has to be maintained thereafter. It is not a temporary or fleeting interest, rather the objective is and must be a permanent condition whereby society is in better balance with the environment and is no longer contributing to climate change mechanisms. The transition to renewable energy is also a long-term public interest from an ecological standpoint.
  2. Security of domestic energy supply, to ensure that the lights remain on, is a continuous long-term obligation of every successive domestic Scottish and UK Government. Energy supply security is a matter of long-term national interest and security against foreign powers.
  3. The Array’s contribution to these objectives is itself long-term. On current projections of available technology, it will be capable of up to 3.6GW (equivalent of 5% of current electricity consumption) of clean energy generation for around 35 years (possibly longer). It will contribute to Scotland and the UK's future low carbon energy mix beyond 2045 and beyond 2050.
  4. The contribution of the Array to the development of the floating wind sector is also strategically important, to ensure the long-term continuity of the offshore wind sector. To make full use of the UK’s seabed resources, deeper areas of the seabed that have previously not been developed due to constraints in fixed foundation technology must become accessible to windfarm development. This can only be achieved by developing floating wind in these areas. The Array is in an optimal position to kickstart the floating wind industry and the scale of the Array positions it as a project that will make a significant contribution to giving the floating wind supply chain the necessary confidence in the market to invest in and ultimately bring down the cost of floating wind and demonstrate that floating wind is a technology available for developing future offshore windfarm projects in other deep water locations.
  5. Finally, economic benefits through the creation of jobs, work-force upskilling and investment in supply chain are also expected from the construction, operation and maintenance of the Array. The following socio-economic highlights have been taken from the EIA: Socio-economics chapter (volume 2, chapter 18).
  • The Array is expected to result in £3.3 billion worth of construction-related contracts in Scotland and £4.0 billion worth of contracts in the UK (including Scotland), out of a total of £7.7 billion in expenditure. These are expected to generate substantial economic activity and employment, particularly associated with the manufacture of floating foundations in Scotland. It was estimated that in the peak year this could support 6,340 jobs in Scotland and 11,210 jobs in the UK  (including Scotland).
  • The Array is expected to support a peak direct employment of around 240 jobs at the main construction port and an annual direct employment impact of 70 jobs at the main operation and maintenance port. This is also expected to generate social impacts, such as population changes and increases in demand for housing.
  • In addition to the impact of the Array there is also expected to be a wider impact of the Ossian project as a whole, which is expected to represent expenditure of £10.2 billion (including the Array). 
  1. The Applicant has developed a Supply Chain Development Statement (SCDS).  The SCDS outlines an ambitious supply chain development strategy that will position the Scottish supply chain to secure orders at home and export opportunities abroad in the rapidly expanding floating offshore wind market. The following is a summary of the key commitments within the SCDS:
  • Aim to achieve a minimum 62% UK content in the vast majority located in Scotland.
  • Manufacture and assemble floating foundations and Wind Turbine Generator towers in Scotland.
  1. Establish a £30 million Supply Chain Fund to grow the Scottish supply chain.
  2. Such benefits live on beyond the immediate construction of the Array and can provide a long-lasting legacy (e.g. skilled workers who go on to work on successive offshore wind farm projects in the years and decades to come).

6.4.1. Conclusion on Long-Term Interest

  1. Once built the Array will make a long-term contribution to decarbonising the energy sector and ensuring security of supply. The Array also affords the opportunity to kickstart the floating wind industry, which will ensure long term, continuity of the floating wind sector. This will lead to long-term economic benefits such as job creation, work force upskilling and investment in the supply chain.

6.5. Step 4: are the reasons for undertaking the Array An overriding Interest?

  1. An assessment of the overriding interests of the Array necessarily involves a balancing exercise. It is for the decision-maker to determine whether the imperative, long-term public interests that the Array serves, outweigh the conservation interests of the qualifying species of the affected SPAs (as listed in section 1.3).
  2. That judgment must be exercised in a rational and a reasonable manner in the context of the HRA framework as described in earlier sections of this Derogation Case. However, ultimately it is a matter of discretion as to the balance to be struck.
  3. In view of the arguments presented above on decarbonisation and energy security, the Applicant considers that the benefits served by the Array clearly override the AEOI identified in the RIAA. The qualifying interests affected in this case are not priority habitats or species, to which the Habitats Regulations attach enhanced importance.
  4. On the other side of the balance, the Array is necessitated by long-term public interests of the highest priority: decarbonisation and security of energy supplies.
  5. Both of these benefits fall within the core IROPI category of “reasons relating to human health, public safety or beneficial consequences of primary importance to the environment”, being reasons that the Habitats Regulations stipulate can be overriding even in circumstances where AEOI has been found in respect of priority habitats and / or species. Decarbonisation is imperative in order to protect human health and public safety, as well as to deliver beneficial consequences of primary importance to the environment, for all of the reasons set out above. The ECJ confirmed in 2019[13] that ensuring the security of electricity supply “at all times” constitutes an IROPI. Either reason, even in isolation, can and would constitute IROPI and together the case is even stronger.
  6. It is noted that the draft DTA Ecology guidance (draft, 2021) suggests that, in general, the interests served by offshore wind farm development are likely to outweigh and override conservation interests: “Given the urgency of the climate change crisis, and having demonstrated the absence of alternative solutions, Scottish Ministers anticipate that it is highly unlikely that the public interest served by delivery of offshore wind proposals will not override the conservation interests.”
  7. This guidance is consistent with the conclusions reached by the decision-makers in each of the previous Scottish and UK offshore wind farm decisions that relied upon the HRA derogation provisions.
  8.  It is also recognised that in contributing to net zero and decarbonisation targets, the Array will provide long term environmental benefits including benefits to bird species within the SPAs as a result of the Array’s contribution to climate change mitigation.
  9. Climate change is likely to be the strongest influence on seabird populations in coming years, with anticipated deterioration in conditions for breeding and survival for most species of seabirds (Sandvik et al. 2012; Frederiksen et al. 2004, 2013; Burthe et al. 2014; Macdonald et al. 2015; Furness 2016; Capuzzo et al. 2018; JNCC 2021; NatureScot, 2021).
  10. The EU funded SEANSE13 project has assessed the impact of climate change on key seabird species (Rijkswaterstaat Zee & Delta 2020). The research concluded that prey availability effects due to climate change is the pressure/pathway that currently has the largest impact on seabird population at the wider North Sea level and is likely to be responsible for a substantially greater effect than impacts resulting from any of the other activities (including collision risk or displacement from offshore wind). For all seabirds it is largely expected that climate change impacts will become more severe in the future as both temperatures, and possibly the rate of increase, become greater, and extreme weather events become more frequent.

6.5.1. Conclusion on Overriding

  1. The imperative reasons for the Array are overriding interests. The benefits that the Array serves outweigh the predicted harm to the affected SPAs which are the subject of this Derogation Case. These benefits are clearly in the long-term public interests, and due to the Array’s contribution to climate change mitigation, they also benefit those seabird species affected by the Array.