Harnessing Offshore Wind in Canada: The Regulatory Landscape for Offshore Wind Development and Lessons Learned from the United Kingdom, Denmark, and the United States

Abstract

Abstract Offshore wind is a key renewable energy source which can lessen depend-ency on fossil fuels and help meet global decarbonization targets. Countries such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, and recently the United States of America, have success in operationalizing offshore wind developments. Canada, despite vast ocean resources, does not have any offshore wind projects. One reason for this can be attributed to the lack of policies to sup-port development of offshore wind projects. To date, there has been no research conducted on the legal regime for developing an offshore wind energy project in Canada. This research focuses on identifying which ear-ly-stage permits are required for offshore wind development federally and provincially, utilizing Nova Scotia as a provincial example. This article iden-tifies the relevant Canadian legislation, regulations, and decision-makers as well as makes suggestions to improve Canada’s regime. To identify regula-tory improvements that Canada could utilize, the regimes of the UK, Den-mark, and the USA are examined with a focus on their initial permit pro-cess. The proposed policy improvements relate to matters of environmental and impact assessments, seabed acquisition and licensing, as well as the administrative processes for granting required permits and consents.