The UK aims to deliver 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and over 125 GW by 2050, but current installation rates need to increase four-fold to meet these legally binding targets (see Figure 1). Delays in planning and consenting, often involving duplicated assessments and complex regulatory processes, are now one of the biggest barriers to progress. These delays have real consequences: slower decarbonisation increases climate risks for coastal and inland communities, threatens energy security, and limits economic opportunities. Our research provides new evidence to help policymakers accelerate offshore wind responsibly. We mapped how UK ocean space is currently used and found that meeting 2050 offshore wind ambitions would occupy less than 5% of the UK Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which is much less than utilized by other ocean sectors including oil & gas, fishing and shipping. Correlations of human activities with ecological measures shows fishing and shipping, not offshore wind, are the human activities with the greatest ecological impact. We also show that most future offshore wind sites for the UK will require floating wind technology, creating opportunities to develop energy infrastructure further offshore and away from many existing users. We identify effective monitoring technologies and decision support tools that enable evidence based, adaptive management as the sector scales. These insights can help streamline consenting, reduce uncertainty, and unlock the rapid offshore wind deployment required for the UK to meet its climate, energy, and economic goals.
Gourvenec et al. (Thu,) studied this question.