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STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
44. The SEA process should be used to identify and assess the environmental effects of development plans so that these effects can be taken into account before the plan is approved or adopted. The Scottish Executive's SEA Tool Kit (2006) provides further guidance on the SEA process, including SEA templates. SEA covers a wide range of environmental issues and, when considering renewable energy policies, planning authorities will require to balance these with wider economic and social factors in drawing up development plans. When doing so, the likely environmental effects of any new grid infrastructure required to accommodate renewable energy developments should be taken into account as far as possible as part of the SEA process, so that appropriate spatial or criteria based policies can be developed to take account of the overall effects of implementing the plan. SEA can also play a key role in highlighting and characterising cumulative, secondary and synergistic effects of numerous renewable energy schemes and their associated infrastructure, at an early stage in the planning process. Environmental Impact Assessments that are subsequently undertaken should take the findings of these strategic level assessments into account. The issues that should be included in the SEA of development plans will be set out in the post-adoption SEA statement accompanying this SPP.
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