Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management

This paper examines the contribution of SEA in six international electricity sector planning case studies. All cases showed some "best practice" evidence such as participation, alternatives consideration and impact assessment; however, considerable variability was found in the types of alternatives considered and the approach to impact assessment and monitoring depending on the timing of SEA application in the PPP process. Regarding substantive contributions, SEA was identified by stakeholders as improving communication during planning and informing lower-level decision making, but fared less well in influencing the nature of the PPP at hand; only two cases clearly incorporated SEA recommendations into the final PPP. Overall, results show considerable potential for SEA to support PPP assessment and decision making in the electricity sector, but also a considerable need for improvements in understanding of the importance of the timing of SEA in the PPP process and how to integrate the results of SEA into PPP development.

Despite their important role in shaping the technologies of the future, public research and development (R&D) programmes are rarely based on systematic assessments of the environmental effects. R&D programmes thus allocate a huge amount of financial resources to projects, which potentially may cause severe negative environmental impacts. This paper presents an innovative environmental assessment practice on R&D programmes in Denmark. It reports on the challenges and experiences of assessing the Danish R&D programme ForskEL, which promotes R&D projects within the electricity sector. The programme is characterised by uncertainty about impacts and incomparable project types and technologies. A methodology for dealing with these challenges is presented, and experiences from a testing of the methodology on the 2012 programme are reflected upon. Finally the assessment is discussed in terms of its potential for making a difference for the future development and deployment of renewable energy.

Germany and the United States are amongst the leading countries regarding installed renewable energy capacity and are steadily adding new facilities. As balancing the strive for a low carbon energy supply with other environmental interests, such as biodiversity conservation, becomes more prevalent with increasing numbers of wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and hydro-power facilities, the call for a strategic-level consideration of environmental impacts (SEA) becomes louder. The paper compares the practice of SEAs for renewable energy plans, programmes, and policies in terms of discussion of alternatives, consideration of cumulative effects, and public involvement. A case study analysis compares SEAs from Germany and the United States and evaluates their performance.

Results indicate large differences between both countries, with Germany performing less well on average. Therefore, a strong need for improvement becomes obvious. A general conclusion is that both countries need to become more open to strategic assessment of environmental impacts from renewable energy policies, strategies, and legislation (policy SEA), in order to allow for meaningful assessment of alternatives and achieve an environmentally sound low carbon future.

The construction sector consumes significant quantities of energy and contributes substantially to greenhouse gas emissions. It is imperative that the sector considers a renewable component to its energy procurement. The sector has adopted various policy instruments such as impact assessment and green procurement for improving its environmental performance. Green procurement involves the procurement of services, products and also energy that meet environmental requirements. This paper focused primarily on the conceptualisation of the inter-link between impact assessment and green procurement. Furthermore, interviews were conducted with three fundamental categories of stakeholders that involved client, contractor and energy company. Although the interview responses showed varied perspectives on the inter-link, most of the interviewees acknowledged its need and suggested certain approaches towards establishing the inter-link. The highlighted approach was to consider the use of commercially available environmental certification tools and focus on areas such as partnerships. Future research should examine how environmental certification tools could facilitate the inter-link and how partnerships need to be arranged therein.

Climate change, rising energy prices, and declining supplies of fossil fuels have changed how governments balance energy needs with environmental protection. Strategic Environmental Assessments in the Province of Nova Scotia are based on core principles that seek to lay the foundation for integrated decision-making in ways that contribute to broader governmental policy commitments. This process places a particular emphasis on early stakeholder consultation and engagement, regulatory streamlining, and future-oriented approaches to sustainability issues. In 2007, the Province of Nova Scotia commissioned the Offshore Energy Environmental Research Association (OEER) to carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) concentrated in the Bay of Fundy on Nova Scotia's west coast — an area known for its immense tidal energy potential. This assessment focused on offshore renewable energy development in the area and culminated in a report outlining strategic recommendations for action. Overall, this process provided the Nova Scotia Government with a path forward in developing and deploying its marine renewable energy industry. This case study outlines the steps of the Nova Scotian SEA process including the scope, timeline, purpose, responsibility, and main steps taken to assess the environmental, economic, and social issues associated with marine renewable energy development in Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy.

This article explores the Canadian province of Ontario's approach to environmental assessment and SEA to electricity issues, its efforts to adapt these processes to facilitate the rapid development of renewable energy sources, and the potential contributions that an SEA approach might have made to these efforts. The province's experience may carry useful lessons for other jurisdictions considering the interplay between environmental assessment processes and strategies designed to move energy systems in the direction of greater sustainability.

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is assumed to be an important instrument to support decision-making in Brazil. Although not mandatory, nearly 35 SEAs, of which one third are devoted to energy plans and programmes (oil, gas, hydroelectricity and biofuel), have been prepared over the past 15 years in Brazil. The effectiveness of SEA, however, has not been studied in detail. This paper reports on the application of a procedural effectiveness analysis to 9 SEAs prepared for energy planning in Brazil, of which 5 deal with renewable energy plans and programmes. The results indicate no significant difference between renewable and non-renewable energy in terms of procedural effectiveness, with adequate performance in screening, baseline and description of mitigation actions, but serious deficiencies in the definition of SEA objectives, identification of strategic alternatives, description of public participation and follow-up strategies. The variability in the performance to each effectiveness criteria is taken as evidence that Brazil has not achieved consistency in SEA procedures, reinforcing the need for improvements in the current system.

In this paper we establish how effectively EIA is currently utilised in the deployment of onshore and offshore wind energy in the United Kingdom (UK) and Germany. In this context, the quality of EIA documentation and the coverage of a range of key EIA aspects of 20 developments are evaluated. Furthermore, the impact of EIA on decision making is established, based on opinions of decision makers and other stakeholders. We find that whilst there are certain weaknesses, overall EIA information is central to decision making, and EIA is resulting in major project modifications. Our results differ from the findings of most previous studies which usually observed a moderate impact on decision making only.