Orsted head of stakeholders and market development Sarah Drljaca (pictured) has called on the UK government to set out its overarching vision for reform in offshore wind planning and consenting.
She said embarking on a “big bang” approach to wholesale reform would potentially destabilise the sector and jeopardise future deployment rates in UK waters.
But a lack of joined-up thinking and greater coordination on reform in more targeted areas could still result in developer uncertainty Drljaca added.
She told the Offshore and Floating Wind Europe conference in London: “I think we are lacking an overall vision of what we want to the process to look like going forward.
“The risk is that we bring forward targeted reform but not a wider solution to streamline consenting.
“One of the reasons for strong growth in the UK is the level of stability in regulatory structure and regimes. Although there will be the need for some areas of reform, it is important that we don’t go fully back to the drawing board.
“But we should ask what the overall vision is. All reforms have different timescales and risk leading to uncertainty for developers to get a credible timetable for consent.”
Mainstream Renewable Power project manager floating offshore wind opportunity Christopher Morris agreed developers were already encountering uncertainty from some areas of reform.
This included the planned move away from Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to Environmental Outcome Reports (EOR) and what transitional arrangements would be put in place, he said.
Morris added: “We haven’t yet seen the wholesale change that would de-risk consenting. We’d also welcome more guidance in some areas. For example, aerial surveys and what buffers we need to include in designs.”