Offshore wind energy – sectoral marine plan: further research for social impact assessment

1. Introduction

Context

The Scottish Government has set a range of targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to generate more energy from renewable sources. The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2019 commits the Scottish Government to reach net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases by 2045 and sets out interim targets to cut emissions by 75% by 2030 and 90% by 2040, against the 1990 baseline. The Scottish Government has also set a target to generate 50% of Scotland's overall energy consumption from renewable sources by 2030 and recognises the potential of offshore wind energy (OWE) in Scotland and its fundamental role in achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.

The Scottish Economy Secretary noted in early 2020: ‘Scotland is the ideal location for offshore wind, but recent projects have not delivered the significant economic opportunities we want to see for Scottish businesses’ (Scottish Government, 2020b). Other relatively recent announcements included Scotland’s Offshore Wind Policy Statement (2020c), which highlights the role wind plays for decarbonisation. OWE can play an integral part in the Just Transition by delivering a decarbonised, affordable and secure energy system. This includes “a fairer, more secure energy system that is no longer reliant on volatile international commodity markets and delivers lower costs for consumers”; and will involve investments to create more jobs in the net zero energy economy, “a growing supply chain, new manufacturing capabilities, new skills, new export opportunities and thriving communities” (Scottish Government, 2023).

Offshore wind will play a vital part in meeting these challenges and is set to expand substantially in Scotland over the next decade and beyond. To facilitate the sustainable development of offshore renewable energy in Scottish waters, the Scottish Government has introduced a system of sectoral marine planning which includes a Social and Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) to understand the plan-level social and economic effects on individuals and their communities from the offshore wind developments.

Purpose of this study

The Scottish Government Offshore Wind Directorate, on behalf of Scottish Ministers, commissioned AECOM to conduct a social research study into the social and economic impacts of OWE on coastal communities in Scotland. The aim of the study was to build on and further develop the findings obtained from the draft SEIA for the Sectoral Marine Plan (SMP) for Offshore Wind Energy and Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas Decarbonisation (SMP-OWE and INTOG) (hereafter referred to as ‘draft plan-level SEIA’) that is currently being conducted to support the Iterative Plan Review. This draft plan-level SEIA was not undertaken by AECOM and was still in development at the time this project was conducted. AECOM was not commissioned to verify the projections of the draft plan-level SEIA within the scope of this project, but rather to undertake research including a desk-based review, and five focus groups with residents of coastal communities to explore, test and make recommendations for refining the draft plan-level SEIA .

The study aims to fill the potential evidence gap in the draft plan-level SEIA by understanding the views of local communities on what the social and economic impacts of offshore wind farms (OWF) are expected to be from their own perspectives.

Following on from this introduction section, the remainder of the report is structured as follows:

Background: setting the context for the Sectoral Marine Plan and Offshore Wind Energy and explaining the purpose of the draft plan-level SEIA in the context of the SMP-OWE and INTOG.

Approach: setting out the approach to the collection of evidence and primary research process including an overview of how focus groups were delivered (includes information about participant recruitment);

Desk-based review: summarising the Scottish Government’s draft plan-level SEIA for SMP-OWE and INTOG (part A); and outlining central themes and findings from wider offshore wind literature on social and economic impacts (part B);

Summary of the focus groups: a thematic summary of the focus group discussions (includes survey capturing participants’ views on OWF before and after the focus groups);

Relevance of findings to the draft plan-level SEIA: a brief synthesis of the views and opinions of the focus group participants on the key projections from the draft plan-level SEIA;

Recommendations: synthesising all elements of the research project, recommendations to the Scottish Government and developers, distinguishing between technical suggestions and policy recommendations to improve the draft plan-level SEIA and future project-level SEIAs; and

Conclusion: concluding with a brief overview of the research project and its key findings.