Samenvatting

Through an increasing demand for lower carbon dioxide discharges together with the anticipation of declining fossil fuels reserves, energy production in Europe will consequently be more and more originated from structures that are winning energy from renewable sources. Europe’s aim is to generate 20% of its energy production from renewable sources by the year 2020. Every European Union (EU)-member state has to contribute to this, therefore a percentage of their energy supply must be generated from renewable energy sources. The development of offshore wind energy is seen as an important measure to realize this aim. Once constructed, most Offshore Wind Farm (OWF)-locations are no go areas for ships that are often sailing outside the international established shipping routes. The smaller type of ships, which are not bounded to international established shipping routes, can make use of shipping routes which are not indicated on maps. These alternative shipping routes are called secondary shipping routes. Guidance on how to define these secondary shipping routes around wind farms during policy making is not defined. This has led to conflict of interests between the policy makers and stakeholders during the policy making process. This report shows the outcomes of the study focusing on the planning methods and techniques which are used in the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands to delimitate OWF’s when taking into account secondary shipping routes.