Med OCEaN expert workshop – Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for floating offshore wind and grid infrastructure

On 5 November, the Renewables Grid Initiative and Med OCEaN hosted an important workshop which brought experts from wind and grid industry, NGOs, TSOs, authorities, academia and consultancies, to better understand the crucial role of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to achieve nature-friendly offshore wind and grid development in the Mediterranean and adjacent Atlantic waters.  

In the context of EU policies pushing for accelerating energy infrastructure projects, environmental protection and restoration stay crucial. Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) are a legal and essential part of permitting for offshore wind and grid projects, helping to prevent damage to marine ecosystems and biodiversity and to mitigate potential negative impacts. 

In the Mediterranean and Atlantic basin, the shift to emerging floating offshore wind technology calls for new standards and approaches to ensure a sound permitting process. Robust Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) can streamline permitting and strengthen EIAs, but key knowledge gaps remain on the impacts of floating technologies and how best to mitigate and monitor them. 

This workshop examined these gaps and the evolving relationship between SEA and EIAs in the context of recent EU efforts to simplify environmental regulation for renewables. By convening wind developers, grid operators, civil society, researchers, spatial planners, and permitting experts, we explored case studies, shared experiences, and identified practical solutions in order to move towards minimum standards for EIAs in floating offshore wind and grid infrastructure projects.  

The objectives of this workshop were to:   

• Clarify the interactions of Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) and Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) for Environmental Impact Assessment and national permitting processes. 

• Increase shared understanding of EIA processes and how they apply to floating offshore wind and grid infrastructure across Southern Europe.  

• Explore challenges and trade-offs between accelerating offshore wind and grid deployment while ensuring robust environmental protection.  

• Identify and discuss common transboundary challenges and opportunities for collaboration to strengthen EIA processes regionally.  

• Collect ideas to improve EIA effectiveness and efficiency for offshore wind and grid infrastructure with nature protection in mind, particularly regarding emerging floating technologies.   

The outcome of the discussions will be summarised in a report and published soon. The recording of the plenary sessions and the power point presentations of the speakers can be found below.