My Department is currently developing the project plan for undertaking the development of the Renewable Energy Export Policy and Development Framework. This framework will provide an opportunity to integrate the relevant requirements set out in various EU Directives, including the requirement for a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and an Appropriate Assessment (Habitats Directive), into the framework.
The SEA will take approximately 12 months and include opportunities for all stakeholders including local authorities, potential project developers and local communities to be consulted and have an input into the national policy for wind export.
A dedicated section on my Department’s website and the initial phase of public consultation on the framework will go live in the next few weeks. The website will provide up to date information about the process on an ongoing basis.
As regards classifying electricity export projects as strategic infrastructural developments, the Planning and Development Acts, 2000 to 2011, and specifically the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006, which set out the rules in relation to Strategic Infrastructure. Under this legislation An Bord Pleanála must express in a written notice that the development falls under the Strategic Infrastructure Act.
In the 7th schedule of the Act, under the heading of energy infrastructure, among the types of development listed is "An installation for the harnessing of wind power for energy production (a wind farm) with more than 25 turbines or having a total output greater than 50 megawatts". Accordingly, whilst it is for An Bord Pleanála to confirm, the very significant scale of the projects being proposed for wind energy export would indicate that they would be classed by the Board as "strategic infrastructure".
