Abstract
One of the objectives of the European Green Deal is to increase the share of renewable energy sources in the EU's energy mix. Among other energy resources, renewable energy from the seas is a cornerstone of the clean energy transition, especially offshore wind, and ocean energy.
Achieving the renewable energy production objectives will necessitate a notable expansion of the offshore energy industry. One of the main challenges for wave energy projects is to find suitable locations that can provide high and consistent wave power, as well as meet the environmental, social, and economic criteria.
Different approaches of modelling can be implemented to assist during the process of the integrated assessment of suitable areas for the development of wave farms. One of the primary outcomes of such models is the creation of maps. The maps serve to illustrate the spatial distribution of suitable locations for the development of wave energy farms.
The main objective of the present deliverable is the identification and characterization of suitable areas for the development of wave energy projects in the context of Maritime Spatial Planning in the European Atlantic region (Spain, Portugal, France, and Ireland), accounting for a total area of 3,136,073 km2.
The model was operationalized in a Bayesian Network. The spatial data to feed the model were obtained from different publicly available datasets. It was implemented into a web-based decision support tool called VAPEM (https://aztidata.es/vapem/).
A total of 34 maps representing the spatial distribution of three different dimensions directly related to the suitability of wave energy projects (i.e., technical suitability, environmental risk, and conflicts with other activities) and the final integrated suitability have been produced.
Almost 11% of the study area has been identified as being suitable for wave energy projects, of which 0.41% is considered as being highly suitable. This percentage represents 37,661 km2 of suitable and highly suitable areas for the development of offshore wave energy projects. The averaged mean annual energy production (MAEP) of our specific WEC, assuming an operation window of 8,760 hour per year (i.e., 365 days, with no stops), is 1,235 ± 80 MWh (mean value for the suitable and highly suitable areas). The maximum and minimum value of the MAEP in this area is 1,605 MWh, and 1,118 MWh, respectively. To achieve the target of 1GW of ocean energy installed capacity by 2030, 7,143 WECs would be needed and to achieve the target of 40 GW by 2050, 285,714 WECs, and in areas with the maximum MAEP, 5,459 WECs and 218,341 WECs respectively.
The results indicate that there is enough space in the European Atlantic region to develop new wave energy farms for the achievement of predefined objectives and that if planned properly and with caution, those developments would fulfil industrial requirements, and would be developed in areas with the lowest environmental risks and limited or no conflicts with other activities.