Page 289 - Alderney Regional Environmental Assessment of Renewable Energy: Environmental Report

Alderney Regional Environmental Assessment of Renewable Energy:
Environmental Report
8. Cumulative Effects
The consideration of cumulative impacts is included within various legislative frameworks
and/or guidance of particular relevance to this REA. Cumulative impacts are referred to in the
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive (2001/42/EC) on the assessment of
certain plans and programmes on the environment. The Directive requires information to be
provided on “the likely significant impacts including cumulative and synergistic impacts… on the
environment.” Separately, the EC Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) requires that where a plan or
project is likely to have a significant effect on a Natura 2000 site, Special Areas of Conservation
(SAC) designated under the Habitats Directive, or Special Protection Areas (SPA) classified
under the EC Birds Directive (2009/147/EC codified version), either individually or in
combination with other plans or projects, shall be subject to Appropriate Assessment (AA) (as
part of an HRA) of its implications for the site, in view of the site's conservation objectives. In
addition, the Commission’s Guide to the Consents Process for obtaining a Licence in relation to
renewable energy systems under the Renewable Energy (Alderney) Law 2007 (ACRE,
2011a; b), includes the consideration of cumulative impacts as part of any EIA.
This REA has taken a holistic approach to the consideration of cumulative impacts. The main
cumulative impacts associated with the potential full build out of the Draft Plan alone have been
considered separately within each of the relevant topic chapters. The full build out of the Draft
Plan is assumed to potentially comprise the following (see Section 2.2.2):
ƒ Approximately 4000 tidal turbines being installed in Alderney’s territorial waters;
ƒ A minimum of 367km of intra- and inter-array cabling;
ƒ Approximately 30km cable routing for the export interconnector cable between
Alderney and France;
ƒ A minimum of four onshore substations/converter stations and/or six offshore
substations; and
ƒ One onshore wind turbine.
The tidal turbines are likely to be concentrated in the areas that have the highest flows and
least constrained in terms of cost, physical constraints, environmental effects and grid
connection. Should concurrent installations occur where there is a clustering of device arrays,
the cumulative impacts could be of greater significance than if they are installed on separate
occasions. The same applies if the installation of tidal device arrays is continuous over a
longer period of time.
The influence of the totality of current and future human pressures on the environment (i.e. the
potential overlap between direct and indirect impacts brought about by the Draft Plan and those
resulting from other relevant plans, projects and activities) and the extent to which this might
give rise to significant cumulative effects have been taken into account in this chapter. The
study area for this cumulative impact assessment will need to encompass any pathways which
connect the Draft Plan with other relevant plans, projects and/or activities. The extent of the
study area will need to take account of the full mobile range of receptors (e.g. mobile species,
movements of vessels) and where these receptors may overlap with the changes brought
about by the Draft Plan in combination with other plans, projects and/or activities. Given these
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