Abbreviated form of legal source
- RE Act
- SEA and EIA Act
Description of the process
License to carry out preliminary investigations
Undertaking preliminary investigations and subsequent exploitation of energy from water and wind in Danish territorial waters and in the Exclusive Economic Zone requires a license to carry out preliminary investigations, which is granted either after a tender or upon application as an exclusive right for a specified area and time period (§ 22 RE Act).
Under the tendering procedure a first such license is granted by DEA to the Danish TSO Energinet who carries out a number of environmental studies aiming to reduce risk for the tenderers, a SEA of the overall plan for the wind farm and an EIA of the onshore installations. These processes are concluded by public consultations, and conclusively approved by DEA and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DEPA) respectively.
After the tender is conducted the winning concessionaire applies for a second license to carry out preliminary (offshore) investigations. The application must include information on the planned project, the preliminary investigations the concessionaire plans to conduct as well as an assessment of the possible impacts of these on the environment. If the preliminary investigations themselves do not require an EIA, DEA will submit a draft license to a four-week consultation of the public and affected authorities and, based on the results, decide whether a licence can be granted.
Under the open-door procedure the developer applies for a license to carry out preliminary investigations as described above concerning the concessionaire. As opposed to the tendering procedure, municipal councils have a special right to raise an objection if the offshore wind turbines are planned to be located less than 15 km from the municipality's coastline. If such an objection is raised, the Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities may reject to grant the license unless climate, environmental or socio-economic considerations decisively speak in favour of realising the project (§§ 22b and 23 RE Act).
Competent authority
- DEA
- DEPA
- Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities
- Municipal councils