The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is conducting a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of a draft plan to enable further rounds of offshore wind leasing and offshore oil and gas licensing in UK waters, including the underground storage of combustible gas in partially depleted oil/gas reservoirs. The main parts of the draft plan/programme include enabling further rounds of offshore wind farm leasing in the UK Renewable Energy Zone and territorial waters of England and Wales.
The main purpose of leasing is to achieve 25 gigawatt (GW) of additional generation capacity by 2020. This part of the plan does not include the territorial waters of Scotland and Northern Ireland.
For offshore oil and gas, the plan is to hold further seaward rounds of oil and gas licensing in UK waters.
For gas storage, the plan is to include future licensing for the underground storage of combustible gas in depleted and other offshore oil and/or gas fields in UK waters.