Policy background Part 13: Offshore Wind Electricity Generation, Oil and Gas Offshore Wind Electricity Generation
The Act provides primary powers to implement the Offshore Wind Environmental Improvement Package. This package will address the impacts of offshore wind infrastructure in the marine environment and help to speed up the consenting process for offshore wind. These powers will enable the Secretary of State (and, in certain circumstances, Scottish Ministers, Welsh Ministers and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland) to make provision in regulations to tailor the assessment of the environmental effects of offshore wind developments on protected sites. Where measures are required to compensate for damage to the national site network or a protected marine area, these sections will allow compensation to be delivered by developers working together if that is more appropriate through "strategic compensation." The powers will enable future delivery of a Marine Recovery Fund(s), which will be an optional mechanism that developers can choose to use to deliver their compensatory measures.