Characterising Environmental Receptors in the Celtic Sea - Updates and New Actions

Following meetings with key stakeholders in both the developer and consenting communities from November 2023 to March 2024 we have taken a number of significant steps to help ensure that future iterations of the document have more focus and an increased ability to be utilised in support of streamlining the development and consent process for Floating Offshore wind in the Celtic Sea whilst also being more minded of stakeholders capacity to provide valued input into the documents content.

A number of content changes are intended to be more permanent (though still open to stakeholder feedback at this stage). Other more temporary changes have been made to the level of information presented for additional stakeholder feedback to decrease levels of required stakeholder input by focusing on a more limited range of receptor specific questions.

More permanent proposed changes

· Following stakeholder feedback the document will now utilise a new title to ensure focus on its key purpose; ‘Characterising Environmental Receptors in the Celtic Sea - Supporting a sustainable future for Floating Offshore Wind.’

· A new introduction has been written for the document clarifying its key purpose.

· References to receptor specific “potential impacts” have been removed to ensure the focus remains on regional scale environmental characterisation with potential interactions and impacts to be determined at the project scale through appropriate licensing and consenting processes.

More temporary changes

Many temporary changes relate to how the current iteration of the document is being presented to encourage further valued stakeholder input whilst minimising the level of content required for review. In this way we hope to encourage additional stakeholders to contribute to the process. Huge thanks to all those that have provided feedback to date and please be ensured that that this feedback has been taken on board and integrated into the documents development.

· The current wider document has been restricted to chapters 1- 4. This can be found in the top right-hand corner of the page. These chapters provide an introduction to the document and its purpose alongside an overview of potential FLOW development areas in the Celtic Sea and information on potential FLOW technologies and associated infrastructure.

· Chapters on the need for development and the UK consenting process have been temporarily removed. The content in these chapters from the first iteration of the document were generally seen to be acceptable by stakeholders but will be refreshed by Celtic Sea Power prior to the documents more general release in March 2025. A number of potential changes to the UK consenting process for FLOW are currently undergoing consideration and will move to completion in 2024 (for example the introduction of new Offshore Wind Environmental Standards). This will enable the refreshed document to be updated with the best available knowledge at the time.

· Appendices have been removed from this iteration of the document but will be restored for the next iteration by March 2025.

· All general receptor specific content has been temporarily removed to enable a more direct focus on the remaining receptor specific questions that can be responded to at the bottom of this page.

· Receptor and baseline environment descriptions for the Celtic Sea have been temporarily removed. These descriptions will be refreshed and restored following further consideration of stakeholder feedback on questions regarding evidence sources in particular. This will help to ensure that all known evidence sources are reflected in any receptor descriptions later provided.

The characterisation document in its current form provides the baseline to progress discussions with key stakeholders as we move to establishing a consensus on all FLOW related environmental receptor considerations.

We anticipate a number of iterations of this document as we build to common agreement and seek to produce a final agreed standardized document characterising environmental receptors for FLOW in the UKCSA.

We would welcome feedback on the document

• All chapters of the 'Characterising Environmental Receptors in the Celtic Sea' can be found on the right side of this page, which will open as pop-up tabs.
• To provide feedback in relation to the receptor chapters, please use the latest stakeholder surveys related to each specific chapter (please ignore the surveys labelled as CLOSED).
• All stakeholder surveys can be found at the bottom of this page.

Please register yourself on Let’s Talk Cornwall (or sign in if you are already registered) before starting a feedback form. As a registered participant you will be able to save stakeholder surveys part way through and return to it later without losing data you have already submitted. You will also receive a copy of your responses for your records.

Privacy Notice

We will use the information you provide to the support one of Celtic Sea Power’s strategic objectives in helping to streamline the licensing and consenting process for Floating Offshore Wind (FLOW) in the Celtic Sea and create an exemplar EIA scoping document

• The Data Controller for the information you provide in our feedback forms is Cornwall Council, New County Hall, Treyew Road, Truro TR1 3AY. Data Protection Registration Number: Z1745294.
• The data will be processed by Celtic Sea Power Ltd. Your data will be held within our secure network and premises for up to 2 years.
• Where we ask you to supply contact information, we will only make access to this data available to authorised members of staff who are required to process it for the purposes outlined in this privacy notice.
• Please note that other information you provide, including responses to open questions, may be published in full and attributed to your organisation. Where this happens, your name will not be published.