Review of marine guidance notes and methodology for offshore renewable energy installations

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s (MCA) guidance documents relating to Offshore Renewable Energy Installations have not been revised for some time, and there has been rapid growth and expansion in the renewables industry over the last few years. As we enter The Crown Estate’s Round 4 and The Crown Estate Scotland’s new leasing of seabed rights, now is a good time to work with the multiple stakeholders and interested parties to update this guidance;

a) To ensure it remains fit for purpose with regards to maintaining the safety of navigation, and the search and rescue capabilities in the UK, now and in the future;

b) and, at the same time, ensure we continue to support the Government’s targets for renewable energy in the UK by providing developers with useful guidance to facilitate the consenting process.

This consultation seeks your comments on the following three documents;

1) Revised Marine Guidance Note (MGN) Safety of Navigation: Offshore Renewable Energy Installations (OREIs) – Guidance on UK Navigational Practice, Safety and Emergency Response. This will replace MGN 543 and is being updated in accordance with current practices, to provide more information on MCA’s requirements, and to align with the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process.

2) Revised Marine Guidance Note (MGN) Safety of Navigation - Guidance to Mariners operating in the vicinity of UK OREIs. This will replace MGN 372 and is being updated to reflect progress make in the UK offshore renewables industry.

3) Revised Methodology for assessing the Navigational Safety and Emergency Response of Offshore Renewable Energy Installations. This will replace the existing Methodology document and has been amended to ensure it is more user-friendly and contains updated and relevant information for the development consent application process. There are no new aspects introduced into this document apart from the reintroduction of IMO Formal Safety Assessment guidance.

You will also find track changed versions of the above documents for comparison.

The consultation period will run for 12 weeks. Please send your responses to MCA by the email or postal address provided by 23:59 on Monday 13th April 2020.