Literature Review

Topic: Strategic Environmental Assessments for Renewable Energy

Development Comparing the United States and Germany
Journal: JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT POLICY AND
MANAGEMENT
ISSN: 1464-3332
Published on: 31st May, 2013
(GEILER, 2013)
Research Problem:
Which country, Germany or United States of America, is better in Strategic
Environmental Assessment (SEA) for Renewable Energy Development?
Conceptual Framework:
In article (GEILER, 2013), author Gesa Geibler research about the
environmental assessment for renewable energy development between
Germany and the United States of America, which are amongst the leading
five countries regarding installed renewable energy capacity. The paper
compares the practice for renewable energy plans, programs, and policies in
terms of discussion of alternatives, consideration of cumulative effects, and
public involvement. A case study analysis compares Strategic
Environmental Assessment (SEAs) from Germany and the United States
and evaluates their performance. Germany reached a share of more than
25% of renewable electricity generation in mid-2012, while in the US almost
13% of the electricity was produced from renewable sources (GEILER,
2013).With the rapid growth of large-scale solar, wind, geothermal, and
biomass energy generation facilities, the environmental consequences of this
development come to the fore in both countries. With the increase of existing
and planned renewable energy generation facilities in both countries, the call
for strategic-level impact assessments becomes louder; in particular as
cumulative effects of many individual projects need to be considered to
ensure a sustainable development of renewables.
Research Methodology:
For this research, a cross-national, horizontal comparative case study
analysis was conducted. The research is based first on a review of relevant
laws and regulations, policy documents, and academic literature. In addition,
a case study analysis of several SEAs and Programmatic Environmental
Impact Statement (PEISs) from Germany and the US from the field of
renewable energy development has been carried out, including the
respective siting and permitting documents. The case studies identified
recommendations using a structured internet research and additional written
inquiries with the agencies in charge for the development of policies, plans,
and programs on renewable energies.

In case of US, a search through the National Environmental Policy Act

(NEPA) registry provided through the website of the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). The focus was on the federal-level PEISs
pursuant to NEPA. In this way, eight PEISs have been analyzed of which six
are finalized and two in different stages of development. Table 2 of (GEILER,
2013) provides the key characteristics of the case studies.
In case of Germany, no central SEA registry exists in Germany, the land-use
planning agencies on federal, state, and regional level were contacted and a
subset of their land-use plans was chosen for analysis. In total, six SEAs have
been analyzed as shown in Table 3 of (GEILER, 2013), five of which are for
non-sectoral plans under the land-use planning regulations.
Research design:
For US, research was designed as in Table 2 of (GEILER, 2013), Two of the
PEISs deal with the development of wind energy resources (Wind Energy
Development Program PEIS, Great Plains PEIS) while one respectively deals
with solar (Solar Energy Development PEIS), geothermal (Geothermal
Leasing PEIS) and biomass (Biomass Crop Assistance Program PEIS) energy
development and two with multiple renewable energies (Alternative Energy
Development and Production and Alternate Use of Facilities on the Outer
Continental Shelf Program PEIS, Hawaii Clean Energy PEIS). Furthermore, the
Designation of Energy Corridors PEIS was included, as dealing with energy
infrastructure also related to renewable energy deployment. The first PEIS
that was initiated was the Wind PEIS in October 2003, while the Hawaii
Clean Energy PEIS is the most recent one. It was only started in 2012 and is
still ongoing.
In case of Germany, programs specific for the energy sector do not exist in
Germany so far. However, the ongoing development process for the sectoral
transmission development plan and its SEA has been included here. The
land-use plan SEAs that have been considered, mainly cover designations for
wind energy use. The two SEAs for the spatial development of offshore
resources and the transmission plan SEA have been conducted by federal
agencies, while the remaining three plans and the SEAs were carried out by
state and regional level administrations. Local plans have not been included
as their scope is generally so narrow that SEAs in this area resemble EIAs,
and are difficult to compare, as shown in Table 3 of (GEILER, 2013).
Analysis:
Table 4 of (GEILER, 2013) identifies the criteria that were used to assess the
performance of the cases studies with regard to the three categories.
(1)consideration of alternatives,
(2)assessment of cumulative effects,
(3)Public participation.

These research criteria are based on a review of academic literature as well

as guidelines in Germany and the US describing relevant aspects for the
development of SEAs or PEISs.
Findings and Contributions:
Regarding the assessment of alternatives, the German cases overall showed
a negative picture. The complete absence of a discussion of alternatives in
all German SEAs analyzed constitutes a major weakness. In particular a poor
assessment of reasonable alternatives leads to a situation where the SEAs
conducted in the end have little potential of changing the strategic actions
and influencing the decision-making. This limited role of the SEAs must be
assumed for all German case studies. Table 8 of (GEILER, 2013) shows
summary of findings from case study analysis.