The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an environmental management instrument implemented worldwide. Full scale WECs are expected to be subjects to EIA. The consents application process can be a very demanding for
Wave Energy Converters (WECs) developers. The process is possibly aggravated by the lack of common frameworks or coordination between
authorities and statutory consultees. Improvement of public administration’s efficiency, including licensing procedures is therefore a key of success for
the entire sector. It is believed that part of the challenges to an efficient consents application process sit in this huge variety of existing technologies as the environmental impacts of WECs are strongly technology dependent, in addition of being location dependent. The present papers aims at introducing a new technology classification based on the expected environmental impact of the devices depending on few strategic parameters to simplify and speed up the scoping procedure and to provide an easier understanding of the technologies to the authorities and bodies involved in the EIA of WECs.