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Resource Data and GIS Tool
For Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in
Europe
Authors: L. Serri (RSE), AM Sempreviva (Risoe-DTU), T.
Pontes (LNEG), J. Murphy (HMRC), K. Lynch (HMRC), D.
Airoldi (RSE), J. Hussey (ITPower), C. Rudolph (IWES), I.
Karagali (Risoe-DTU)
Document version: Final (C)
Date: 15th February 2012
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
Contributing Authors’ Associations
Hydraulics and Maritime Research
Centre (HMRC),
University College Cork (UCC)
Ricerca Sistema Energetico
Risoe-DTU National Laboratory
for Sustainable Energy,
Technical University of Denmark
(DTU)
Laboratório Nacional de Energia e
Geologia
ITPower
Fraunhofer-Institut für
Windenergie und
Energiesystemtechnik
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
Proposed Table of Contents
1
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 1
2
Regional Descriptions ................................................................................................................................ 2
3
2.1
Region 1: North Sea and Baltic Sea ................................................................................................... 3
2.2
Region 2: Atlantic Ocean ................................................................................................................... 5
2.3
Region 3: Mediterranean and Black Sea Area ................................................................................... 7
Wind Resource........................................................................................................................................... 9
3.1
General Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 9
3.2
European Wind Resource Data ....................................................................................................... 10
3.3
Regional Wind Resource Data ......................................................................................................... 11
3.3.1
North Sea and Baltic Sea Region ............................................................................................. 11
3.3.2
Atlantic Ocean Region ............................................................................................................. 12
3.3.3
Mediterranean and Black Sea Region...................................................................................... 13
3.4
National Wind Resource Data ......................................................................................................... 15
3.5
Buoy Data ........................................................................................................................................ 17
3.5.1
North Sea and Baltic Sea Region ............................................................................................. 17
3.5.2
Atlantic Ocean Region ............................................................................................................. 18
3.5.3
Mediterranean and Black Sea Region...................................................................................... 19
3.6
4
Wave Resource ........................................................................................................................................ 25
4.1
5
Data Selected for ORECCA GIS ......................................................................................................... 21
General Information ........................................................................................................................ 25
4.1.1
Nomenclature .......................................................................................................................... 25
4.1.2
Wave Information Sources ...................................................................................................... 25
4.2
European Wave Resource Data ....................................................................................................... 28
4.3
Regional Wave Resource Data......................................................................................................... 29
4.4
National Wave Resource Data ......................................................................................................... 30
4.5
Buoy Data ........................................................................................................................................ 32
4.6
Data Selected for ORECCA GIS ......................................................................................................... 33
Tidal Current Resource ............................................................................................................................ 37
5.1
General ............................................................................................................................................ 37
5.2
European ......................................................................................................................................... 37
5.2.1
GIS Data Layer.......................................................................................................................... 37
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
5.2.2
5.3
European Wide Studies ........................................................................................................... 39
Regional ........................................................................................................................................... 39
5.3.1
North Sea and Baltic Sea Region ............................................................................................. 39
5.3.2
Atlantic Ocean Region ............................................................................................................. 39
5.3.3
Mediterranean and Black Sea Region...................................................................................... 40
5.4
National ........................................................................................................................................... 41
6
Sources of Other Relevant Data .............................................................................................................. 45
7
GIS Development ..................................................................................................................................... 47
7.1
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 47
7.2
Background ...................................................................................................................................... 47
7.3
Data Sources .................................................................................................................................... 48
7.3.1
European ................................................................................................................................. 48
7.3.2
Regional ................................................................................................................................... 49
7.3.3
National ................................................................................................................................... 50
7.4
GIS Tool Assembly ........................................................................................................................... 50
7.5
GIS Classification Rationale and Initial Output ................................................................................ 51
7.5.1
Bathymetry and Sea Bottom Morphology............................................................................... 51
7.5.2
Distance from Shore ................................................................................................................ 55
7.5.3
Seismic Activity ........................................................................................................................ 58
7.5.4
Environmental Aspects ............................................................................................................ 58
7.5.5
Ports......................................................................................................................................... 61
7.5.6
Cities ........................................................................................................................................ 64
7.5.7
Electrical grid ........................................................................................................................... 67
7.5.8
Uses of the Sea ........................................................................................................................ 68
7.6
8
Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 71
7.6.1
Calculation mask ...................................................................................................................... 71
7.6.2
Wind Resource Scenarios ........................................................................................................ 71
7.6.3
Wave Resource Scenarios........................................................................................................ 71
7.6.4
Combined Resource Scenarios ................................................................................................ 71
Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................................... 73
8.1
North and Baltic Seas....................................................................................................................... 75
8.2
Atlantic Ocean ................................................................................................................................. 83
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
8.3
9
Mediterranean and Black Seas ........................................................................................................ 91
Conclusions .............................................................................................................................................. 95
10 References ............................................................................................................................................... 97
List of Figures
Figure 1: Map of Europe with 3 ORECCA defined regions approximately outlined .......................................... 2
Figure 2: North and Baltic Seas Region: ORECCA defined area in GIS (Source: RSE) ........................................ 3
Figure 3: Atlantic Ocean Region: ORECCA defined area in GIS (Source: RSE) ................................................... 5
Figure 4: Mediterranean and Black Seas Region: ORECCA defined area in GIS (Source: RSE) .......................... 7
Figure 5: North Sea Wind Map ........................................................................................................................ 11
Figure 6: South Baltic Wind Speed Map at 80m a.s.l. ..................................................................................... 12
Figure 7: Buoy Data compared against Quikscat and HOAPS data for North Sea and North Atlantic36 ......... 13
Figure 8: Offshore wind measuring buoys....................................................................................................... 14
Figure 9: Two wind maps over the Mediterranean and Black Sea: from Nostrum project (60 m a.s.l., above)
and from QuikSCAT data (10 m a.s.l., below)40 ............................................................................................... 15
Figure 10: Map of European Meteorological Measurement Buoys ................................................................ 19
Figure 11: Map of RADSEANET Measurement Buoys...................................................................................... 19
Figure 12: Long-time average values of wind speed (m/s) measured by stations based offshore, on islands
and on coasts in the Mediterranean and Black Sea area. Source Windfinder105, processing by RSE ............. 20
Figure 13: North and Baltic Seas Region: Quikscat Average Annual Wind Speed Data at 10m a.s.l............... 22
Figure 14: Mediterranean and Black Seas Region: Quikscat Average Annual Wind Speed Data at 10m a.s.l. 23
Figure 15: Atlantic Ocean Region: Quikscat Average Annual Wind Speed Data at 10m a.s.l. ........................ 24
Figure 16: Annual wave power roses for the northernmost part of the Northeastern Atlantic covered by
WERATLAS. The figure inside the rose represents the annual power level in kW/m. .................................... 29
Figure 17: DMI-WAM models; a) North Atlantic; b) North Sea and Baltic Sea; .............................................. 30
Figure 18: North and Baltic Seas: OCEANOR GIS Map - Calculated average wave power and input point
database .......................................................................................................................................................... 34
Figure 19: Mediterranean and Black Seas: OCEANOR GIS Map - Calculated average wave power and input
point database ................................................................................................................................................. 35
Figure 20: Atlantic Ocean: OCEANOR GIS Map - Calculated average wave power and input point database 36
Figure 21: Tidal Points across Europe as produced by the GIS ....................................................................... 38
Figure 22: Distribution of Tidal Current Locations across Europe ................................................................... 40
Figure 23: Irish Tidal Current Resource ........................................................................................................... 43
Figure 24: GEBCO bathymetry map of European seas .................................................................................... 49
Figure 25: Classification of water depths (bathymetry) as a function of applicable types of foundation ...... 51
Figure 26: North and Baltic Sea Bathymetry map using depth classifications (source RSE) ........................... 52
Figure 27: Mediterranean and Black Seas Bathymetry map using depth classifications (source RSE) ........... 53
Figure 28: Atlantic Ocean Bathymetry map using depth classifications (source RSE) .................................... 54
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
Figure 29: North and Baltic Seas: Distances from Shore Buffer Zones in GIS (Source: RSE) ........................... 55
Figure 30: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Distances from Shore Buffer Zones in GIS (Source: RSE) ............ 56
Figure 31: Atlantic Ocean: Distances from Shore Buffer Zones in GIS (Source: RSE) ...................................... 57
Figure 32: Map of seismic activity in Europe ................................................................................................... 58
Figure 33: North and Baltic Seas: MPA Map from GIS (Source: RSE) .............................................................. 59
Figure 34: Mediterranean and Black Seas: MPA Map from GIS (Source: RSE)................................................ 59
Figure 35 – Atlantic Ocean: MPA Map from GIS (Source: RSE) ....................................................................... 60
Figure 36: North and Baltic Seas: All Ports Map from GIS (Source: RSE) ........................................................ 61
Figure 37: Mediterranean and Black Seas Region: All Ports Map from GIS (Source: RSE) .............................. 62
Figure 38: Atlantic Ocean Region: All Ports Map from GIS (Source: RSE) ....................................................... 63
Figure 39: North and Black Seas: Cities GIS Map (Source: RSE) ...................................................................... 64
Figure 40: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Cities GIS Map (Source: RSE) ....................................................... 65
Figure 41: Atlantic Ocean: Cities GIS Map (Source: RSE) ................................................................................. 66
Figure 42: European High Voltage Transmission Grid ..................................................................................... 67
Figure 43: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Offshore Renewable Projects GIS Map (Source: RSE) ................. 68
Figure 44: North and Baltic Seas: Offshore Renewable Projects GIS Map (Source: RSE) ................................ 69
Figure 45: Atlantic Ocean: Offshore Renewable Projects GIS Map (Source: RSE) .......................................... 70
Figure 46: North and Baltic Seas: Combined Wind and Wave Resource Map ................................................ 75
Figure 47: North and Baltic Seas: Summary of available sea areas ................................................................. 76
Figure 48: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 1 summary of sea areas .................................................... 77
Figure 49: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 2 summary of sea areas .................................................... 78
Figure 50: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 3 summary of sea areas .................................................... 79
Figure 51: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 4 summary of sea areas .................................................... 80
Figure 52: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 5 summary of sea areas .................................................... 81
Figure 53: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 6 summary of sea areas .................................................... 82
Figure 54: Atlantic Ocean: Combined Wind and Wave Resource Map ........................................................... 83
Figure 55: Atlantic Ocean: Summary of available sea areas ........................................................................... 84
Figure 56: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 1 summary of sea areas ............................................................... 85
Figure 57: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 2 summary of sea areas ............................................................... 86
Figure 58: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 3 summary of sea areas ............................................................... 87
Figure 59: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 4 summary of sea areas ............................................................... 88
Figure 60: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 5 summary of sea areas ............................................................... 89
Figure 61: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 6 summary of sea areas ............................................................... 90
Figure 62: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Combined Wind and Wave Resource Map.................................. 91
Figure 63: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Summary of available sea areas .................................................. 92
Figure 64: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Resource Level 1 summary of sea areas...................................... 93
Figure 65: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Resource Level 4 summary of sea areas...................................... 94
List of Tables
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
Table 1: Sources of National Offshore Wind Resource Data ........................................................................... 17
Table 2: North Sea measurement buoys used to validate Quikscat data ....................................................... 18
Table 3:Location of offshore buoys used for validation of the QuikScat data in the Mediterranean Sea
(Furevik et al 2011) .......................................................................................................................................... 21
Table 4: Wave data sources and types ............................................................................................................ 26
Table 5: Main global numerical wind-wave models ........................................................................................ 27
Table 6: Sources of National Wave Resource Data ......................................................................................... 32
Table 7: National Buoy Data Sources .............................................................................................................. 33
Table 8: Sources of National Tidal Current Resource data .............................................................................. 44
Table 9: National: Relevant Data Sources ....................................................................................................... 46
Table 10: Europe: Relevant Data Sources ....................................................................................................... 46
Table 11: European Wide Data Sources used in GIS Tool ............................................................................... 49
Table 12: Annual Average Wind Speed Levels used in GIS .............................................................................. 71
Table 13: Annual Average Wave Power Levels used in GIS ............................................................................. 71
Table 14: Combined Offshore Renewable Resource: GIS Scenarios ............................................................... 72
Table 15: Available sea area for a combined resource level in each geographical region.............................. 73
Table 16: Available sea area for each wave scenario and each wind scenario in each geographical region.. 73
Table 17: Percentage of tidal sites falling within certain distances from shore ............................................. 74
Table 18: North and Baltic Seas: Summary of sea areas ................................................................................. 76
Table 19: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 1 summary of sea areas ..................................................... 77
Table 20: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 2 summary of sea areas ..................................................... 78
Table 21: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 3 summary of sea areas ..................................................... 79
Table 22: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 4 summary of sea areas ..................................................... 80
Table 23: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 5 summary of sea areas ..................................................... 81
Table 24: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 6 summary of sea areas ..................................................... 82
Table 25: Atlantic Ocean: Summary of sea areas ............................................................................................ 84
Table 26: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 1 summary of sea areas ................................................................ 85
Table 27: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 2 summary of sea areas ................................................................ 86
Table 28: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 3 summary of sea areas ................................................................ 87
Table 29: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 4 summary of sea areas ................................................................ 88
Table 30: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 5 summary of sea areas ................................................................ 89
Table 31: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 6 summary of sea areas ................................................................ 90
Table 32: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Summary of sea areas................................................................... 92
Table 33: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Resource Level 1 summary of sea areas ....................................... 93
Table 34: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Resource Level 4 summary of sea areas ....................................... 94
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
1
Introduction
This document was prepared to describe work undertaken as part of the Resource work package of the EU
FP7 project ORECCA (Offshore Renewable Energy Conversion – Coordinated Action)1.
The aim of this document is to provide a catalogue of sources of offshore renewable data in Europe on
European, regional and national levels and to outline the work carried out to collate the most suitable data
available into a GIS tool. Some results and analysis from this tool are further described in the latter
sections; giving available sea surface area for a given combined resource level at various water depths and
distances from shore for the 3 ORECCA defined regions in Europe.
Region 1:
Region 2:
Region 3:
North and Baltic Seas
Atlantic Ocean
Mediterranean and Black Seas
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
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Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
2
Regional Descriptions
For the purposes of the ORECCA project and for ease of analysis, Europe was assessed as 3 separate regions
which share relevant characteristics such as geography and resource. These are approximately outlined in
Figure 1 below and are:
Region 1:
Region 2:
Region 3:
North and Baltic Seas (Yellow in Figure 1)
Atlantic Ocean (Red)
Mediterranean and Black Seas (Green)
The following sub-sections briefly describe these regions in terms of their offshore renewable resource and
geography. Further regional descriptions are available on the European Atlas of the Seas.
Figure 1: Map of Europe with 3 ORECCA defined regions approximately outlined
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
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Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
2.1 Region 1: North Sea and Baltic Sea
The ORECCA Project defines the Baltic and North Sea region as an area bound by the coast of the Baltic Sea
in the east, the Atlantic coast of Norway in the North and the eastern and southern coast of the UK in the
West.
The North Sea is located on the continental shelf of North-Western Europe and has the configuration of a
semi-enclosed sea bounded by the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark and the Scandinavia peninsula.
The area covers 745,950 km². Beside the Norwegian Trench in the Skagerrak Strait at the southern end of
Norway [LME 2004], it is shallower than 200 m.
The Baltic Sea is an enclosed sea bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the European North Coast, and
the Danish islands. The Baltic Sea outflows into the North Sea through the Øresund strait (between
Denmark and Sweden) and the Danish Belts (Store and Lille) via the Kattegat. The Baltic Sea includes
the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland the Northen part of the former and the east part of the latter
are long frozen during winter.
Figure 2: North and Baltic Seas Region: ORECCA defined area in GIS (Source: RSE)
The main population centres are located along the south coast of the North Sea and the eastern coast of
the UK. There is a strong maritime culture in this region dating back to the Vikings. This is clear in the
present day shipping routes and fishing industry and in the numerous large ports located in this region.
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
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Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
A large part of the south of the North Sea has relatively shallow water (less than 50m) while the northern
part and the Baltic Sea has primarily water up to 200m depth range.
In both the North Sea and Baltic Sea there is huge potential for wind energy, which is being exploited
intensively especially in Denmark where the first world offshore wind farm has been installed since 1991 in
Vindby off the North coast of the Danish Island Lolland.
The suitability of the region to wind is supported by the numerous existing installations of offshore wind
farms in the shallow water areas but also a planned offshore wind test site off the east coast of England
and a floating offshore wind turbine demonstrator in the deeper waters off the coast of Norway. Ocean
energy sites on the other hand are limited to a combined wind and wave device test site off the coast of
Denmark.
There is short fetch in this region which results in lower wave resource in the south and an increased wave
power in the north influenced by the Atlantic. The wave resource varies from a high resource of up to
60kW/m annual average in the North along the coast of Norway and eastern coast of Scotland, to a much
reduced figure in the South of 10-20kW/m annual average. These average power figures increase in winter
to 105kW/m in Norway, 123kW/m in Scotland and 15-40kW/m in the southern North Sea (according to
WERATLAS).
The region’s tidal current sites are exclusively located off the English and French coasts in the English
Channel and the Orkney Islands in Northern Scotland. There is a possibility that there are high currents in
and around the fjords of Norway however no specific data has been found to support this.
As well as the obvious commitment of the region to offshore wind, other advantages of the region include
the existing and planned electrical interconnectors which could distribute renewable energy generation
from this region to the mainland continental Europe and the high density of suitable ports and
infrastructure on all coasts which are already in use for offshore renewable projects and the oil and gas
industry.
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
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Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
2.2 Region 2: Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic region, as defined by the ORECCA Project, extends from Iceland in the North, western UK in the
North-East to the southern coast of Portugal, the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands in the SouthWest.
Figure 3: Atlantic Ocean Region: ORECCA defined area in GIS (Source: RSE)
The population in this region is dense along the South Atlantic coast (i.e. France, Spain and Portugal) and on
both coasts of the Irish Sea, however is very sparsely populated in the west of Ireland and Scotland where
the combined resource is greatest. The ratio of maritime economic zone to land area is large in this region
and is reflected in the strong fishing and maritime culture and the numerous shipyards and ports in the
region.
The wind and wave resource is developed over a long fetch across the Atlantic Ocean from the eastern
coast of the USA and in general there is a very good wind and wave energy resource all along the Atlantic
coast, most notably in the west coast of Ireland, Scotland, southern England and northern Spain. The
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
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Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
average wind speed at 10m a.s.l. varies from 6.5m/s in the south of the region to 8.5m/s in the North with a
concentration of higher wind speeds at the northern tip of Spain, Galicia.
The annual average wave power per meter wave crest on the west coast of Ireland is 76kW/m and
157kW/m in winter while northern Spain is 55kW/m annual average and 113kW/m winter average. There is
a good tidal current resource in specific locations where coastal topography constricts flow and increases
tidal currents e.g. Severn, Pentland Firth etc; these sites are primarily in the Irish Sea, Scottish Islands and
the north-west coast of France.
The North Atlantic (UK, Ireland and France) has a continental shelf and therefore a reasonably constant
water depth with distance from shore (depth less than 200m) while the South Atlantic (Spain and Portugal)
has deep water closer to shore. The areas with water depth suitable for fixed offshore structures i.e. less
than 50m, is limited in this region to the French coast and the Irish Sea.
There are multiple existing and planned test sites in wave and tidal energy all along the Atlantic Coast
reflecting the resource in this region however despite the high wind resource there are few offshore wind
farms, with the exception of the Irish Sea, due in part to the extreme wave climate in the Atlantic and water
depth greater than the current fixed structures design depths.
A major disadvantage in the region is the limited grid infrastructure in the higher resource areas which also
have the lowest population density and energy loads e.g. west Ireland and Scotland. However as the
resource here is one of the highest in Europe, it may provide a sufficient incentive to invest in the grid
infrastructure to provide renewable energy to continental Europe through the proposed Northern
European interconnectors.
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
2.3 Region 3: Mediterranean and Black Sea Area
The Mediterranean and Black Sea region, as considered by ORECCA, is enclosed by the shores of the
Mediterranean and Black Sea as far as the straits of Gibraltar. This region is the crossroads of three
continents with many cultures and countries at very different stages of development. There are 24
countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea basin; 6 EU member countries, 3 EU candidates, 5 potential EU
candidates and 10 other countries. The Black Sea basin is bordered by 6 countries; 2 EU member countries,
1 EU candidate country and 3 other countries.
Iceland
Figure 4: Mediterranean and Black Seas Region: ORECCA defined area in GIS (Source: RSE)
The region has a strong historical link to early navigation and early western civilisation. It is well known for
its mild climate, scenic landscapes and the historical and artistic heritage of its countries have made
tourism widespread. There is therefore high coastal tourism, fishery and navigation in the region.
From the physical point of view, the region has rather homogeneous characteristics as far as
geomorphology, meteorology, climate and environment are concerned. Nevertheless, the actual degree of
knowledge of their energy resources and peculiar environmental aspects is currently less advanced than in
the other regions.
There are few offshore measurement stations for measured offshore renewable data in the Mediterranean
and Black Seas, especially in the south of the Mediterranean which limits the estimate of the actual wind
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
resources. However, wind climatology studies from different methodologies (See section 3.3.3) revealed
prospective sites with wind resources in deeper waters.
With regards ocean energy, the region has a relatively low wave energy resource with the highest average
wave power approx. 6kW/m in the Mediterranean Sea and there are a few specific locations with good
tidal and ocean current resource i.e. straits of Gibraltar, straits of Messina and Bosporus straits.
New interest is growing for the exploitation of offshore renewable resources in this area, primarily for
wind, but also for wave, current and thermal energy. The Mediterranean offshore wind potential has been
investigated since 19922. As yet, no offshore renewable energy converter has been installed, for industrial
production purposes, but significant offshore wind potential has been estimated. More than 90 wind farms
totalling about 20 GW of capacity are under consideration in this area3 including a few wind farms on fixed
foundations already authorized in Spain and Italy4 and one of the first floating wind turbine prototypes has
been tested for some time in Italian waters. A wind farm has also been authorised in the Black Sea off the
coast of Constantia, Romania3.
Ocean energy is also active in the region; a Kobold turbine driven by sea current was tested for a couple of
years in the Strait of Messina5. Other devices for current energy exploitation are under development and
the first experimentation of wave energy devices has been announced in the waters of Malta6.
Infrastructure such as ports, shipyards, ships and electrical grid need further development to become
suitable for significant installation and deployment of offshore renewable energy conversion devices.
Studies for a common approach for the development of ports and for the Maritime Spatial Planning for
better development of offshore renewable energies for this region are in progress7,8.
Both Seas have very deep water with limited shallow water regions close to shore. For the Mediterranean
this creates an issue with visibility of offshore structures from shore and the impact of this on tourism.
Two issues of particular note in the Mediterranean and Black Seas region are the presence of significant
seismic activity and certain environmental issues unique to the region in particular the presence of endemic
species such as Posidonia Oceanica, a native seagrass.
In general, the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins are less rich in wind, wave and tidal resources than the
other regions and have limited areas with shallow waters suitable for fixed foundations. However the
Mediterranean Sea basin could potentially be an interesting area for developing offshore renewable energy
sources, for two main reasons. Firstly, extreme resource conditions are less harsh than in oceans and other
European seas, which could favour the development of dedicated, less “robust” and consequently less
expensive conversion devices. Secondly, according to a report by OME9, much of the forthcoming increase
in energy demand is expected to take place in the North African countries bordering the Mediterranean.
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
3
Wind Resource
The following sections, 3, 4 and 5, describe the sources of available resource data for each of the offshore
renewable resources on a European, regional and national level and highlight the data that has been used
in the EU FP7 ORECCA Project GIS tool.
3.1 General Introduction
The process used to measure the wind energy potential at a given site can be described roughly in two
phases10:
Phase i) An evaluation of regional wind resources to locate promising wind farm areas, assuming maps of
mean wind speed based on long-term (at least five full years) wind measurement in the region are
available.
Phase ii) A site-specific evaluation of the wind climate in the selected area where high masts are often
erected to measure at least one year of wind and atmospheric turbulence profiles.
Offshore experimental data is sparse and recorded periods of data are limited. Research attempts to supply
information in the absence of these long-term observations using other methods however issues arise in
validating these models without offshore measured data.
Some of these research methods include;
The use of onshore measurements in nearby coastal areas11,12;
Re-analysis of datasets produced by applying a model to historical datasets to provide a long-term
homogeneous time series. Many of these have been developed; the 2 most widely used to date
are:
1) data sets from the European Centre of Medium range Weather Forecast “ECMWF”, ERA 15
(1978 - 1994), ERA 40 (1957 - 2002) ERA Interim (1989-2013) with a spatial resolution of 2.5°
by 2.5°, 1.5° x 1.5° and 1.5° x 1.5° respectively ;
2) data sets from the NOAA's National Centres for Environmental Prediction “NCEP” with a
spatial resolution of 1.875° by 1.875°;
Increasing the reliability of space-borne observations from satellites using instruments such as
scatterometers, which operate by transmitting pulses and quantifying the backscatter of a radar
signal by the ocean surface.
The main advantages of using space-borne scatterometer data for wind resource mapping is that they are
from actual observation and their spatial coverage and the temporal continuity is at little or no cost, if used
for research purposes. Limitations in terms of the accuracy, resolution and temporal sampling, currently
restrict the application of this data source to the feasibility stage i.e. Phase (i) 13,14. The data obtained during
phase (i) is required in phase (ii) to evaluate the short-term observations in a “climatological context”.
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Resource Data and GIS Tool
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Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
3.2 European Wind Resource Data
Offshore wind resource assessment has been addressed by a number of European Union supported
projects15. For further information, a paper by Sempreviva10 gives a detailed review of Wind Energy
assessment methodologies offshore.
Uncertainties16,17 in resource prediction were identified in two EU projects;
The JOULE project ‘Predicting Offshore Wind Energy Resources’18, setup a new methodology for
combining geostrophic wind speeds estimated from surface measurements and the WAsP model to
map wind speeds over European seas.
The ENDOW project11, in which a series of mesoscale model runs illustrated that temperature
variations, orography and roughness changes have an approximately equal impact on the predicted
wind resource offshore. It was found that stability conditions are non-neutral for a significant
fraction of the year and varies on spatial scales approximately equivalent to those of the area of
large offshore wind farms. Accordingly, spatial variability needs tools for accurate prediction.
Currently, a number of research projects are underway on the European and national level such as the FP7
NORSEWIND19, a Northern Seas Wind Index Database (2008-2012) which aims to provide offshore wind
atlases for the Irish, Baltic and North Seas.
The re-analyses data-sets, mentioned previously, cover all of the world seas but the resolution is very low
and therefore coastal areas are not resolved.
The data sources most thoroughly explored to date for wind energy applications are derived from polar
orbiting satellites equipped with scatterometers including the NASA/JPL’s SeaWinds Scatterometer on
QuikSCAT satellite20 and the more recent ASAR (Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar) onboard ESA Envisat
(ENVIronmental SATellite).
QuikSCAT21 has an 1800 km wide measurement swath on the Earth’s surface resulting in twice per day
coverage over a given geographic region with a descending and an ascending orbit. QuikSCAT covers
approximately 90-percent of Earth’s oceans every day. Wind retrievals are done on a spatial scale of 0.25o x
0.25o latitude/longitude providing wind-speed measurements of 3–20m/s, with an accuracy of 2m/s and
20° for wind speed and direction respectively. However, root mean square differences between quality
controlled research ships and QuikSCAT are approximately ±1 m/s in wind speed and ±15° in direction22.
SAR data from ESA ERS-2 are available for 1995 to date. With the newest retrieval algorithm update,
CMOD5 wind speeds between 2 m/s and 24 m/s with an accuracy of ±2 m/s23, are obtained at typical grid
resolutions used for wind energy mapping (approx. 500 m by 500 m). Major disadvantages with the use of
images from SARs in wind energy resource mapping are that they are obtained three to eight times
monthly and wind speed data are provided for free only in the original coordinate system ‘‘swath mode’’
while ‘‘grid mode’’ wind data have to be purchased.
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3.3 Regional Wind Resource Data
3.3.1
North Sea and Baltic Sea Region
Measurements programmes have been made at prospective offshore wind farm sites using purpose built
meteorological masts at a number of sites in northern Europe. These include those in Denmark24,25,
Germany26,27 and Sweden28. In other countries, such as the UK, the Netherlands and Norway, measurement
campaigns are not well described in the literature due to commercial confidentiality. Currently, the EUNorsewind project (2008-2012) aims to produce a wind atlas for the Irish and North Seas using 15 lidars and
some met-masts, satellite-based wind mapping and atmospheric modelling.
A North Sea Wind Map is available on request from Garrad Hassan as seen in Figure 5 below.
Figure 5: North Sea Wind Map
29
A South Baltic Wind Map is also available from Risoe-DTU and was prepared for the South Baltic Offshore
Wind Energy Regions (South Baltic OFF.E.R30) and the South Baltic Programme31 of cross-border cooperation.
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Figure 6: South Baltic Wind Speed Map at 80m a.s.l.
3.3.2
32
Atlantic Ocean Region
While there are no known Atlantic wind resource studies being undertaken, a new transnational EU project
is due to begin shortly in the region, Atlantic Power Cluster33,34. It is based on the successful North Sea
Power Cluster and aims to bring together Atlantic coastal countries to develop a strategy and promote
innovation for marine renewable energy.
A study35 was carried out to compare the HOAPSi, Quikscat and real buoy data in the north Atlantic and the
North Sea. It was found that the QuikSCAT’s mission requirement to provide wind speed within an rmse of
2m/s is met for the eastern North Atlantic and North Sea.
i
Hamburg Ocean Atmosphere Parameters and Fluxes from Satellite Data
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Figure 7: Buoy Data compared against Quikscat and HOAPS data for North Sea and North Atlantic
3.3.3
35
Mediterranean and Black Sea Region
Although the need for better information on offshore wind resources over the area of the Mediterranean
and Black Sea has long been acknowledged36, and several studies on this subject have already been
performed, at present it still generally agreed that the level of uncertainty and resolution of currently
available wind maps37 should be improved considerably, especially with a view to evaluating the likely
amount of energy that could be produced from wind. Moreover, many of these available wind maps refer
to heights above sea level that are lower than the rotor hub heights of most wind turbines today set up at
offshore wind farms.
The main issue of the Mediterranean and Black sea area is fundamentally the lack of direct measurements
of offshore wind. The number of wind measuring buoys at present in operation is around twenty, see
Figure 8, however many of these buoys have been laid down at sea very recently. Furthermore, most buoys
have been concentrated along the coasts of northern countries in the Mediterranean area, i.e. Spain,
France, Italy and Greece, and along the coasts of Turkey in the Black Sea.
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Figure 8: Offshore wind measuring buoys
As for all offshore areas, offshore measurements of wind speed and direction over the Mediterranean and
Black Sea have also been carried out by the QuikSCAT satellite38 for 10 years (from 1999 through 2009) and
make it possible to draw up homogeneous wind maps of large areas with 0.25° resolution. These maps
have already been made ready for the Mediterranean basin as well39.
As a significant example, Figure 9 shows the wind map at 60 m above sea level produced by the Nostrum
project, as well as the map obtained by processing wind data at 10 m above sea level measured by the
QuikSCAT satellite over eight years.
On the whole, these maps seem in good agreement as far as indication of the points with highest wind
speeds is concerned; the points, which show high wind speeds, are located in the Gulf of Lyon and in the
Greek archipelagos. Other areas with lower, wind speeds are found around the southern regions of Italy, in
the Channel of Sicily, along the coastline of Croatia and off the coasts of Spain near Gibraltar, where the
first offshore wind farm in the Mediterranean should reportedly be built soon40.
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41
Figure 9: Two wind maps over the Mediterranean and Black Sea: from Nostrum project (60 m a.s.l., above) and from QuikSCAT
39
data (10 m a.s.l., below)
Offshore wind speed and power density maps at 40 and 60 m a.s.l. for the western side of the Black Sea
(Romania and Bulgaria) have been developed together with evaluations of scenarios for assessment of the
profitability of wind energy investments42. Moreover a focus on Romanian offshore wind energy
possibilities is reported43. Both these studies demonstrate the technical and economical feasibility of
offshore wind parks in these areas of the Black Sea.
Another evaluation of offshore wind potential in some Mediterranean and Black Sea countries has been
carried out by ENEL through a GIS tool where the overall technical potential was calculated for a mean wind
speed greater than 6m/s at 75m a.s.l. within 50 km of shore and in 200m water depth.
3.4 National Wind Resource Data
The following table is a summary of the available national wind resource documents in Europe that were
known to the ORECCA project at the time of writing.
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Country
Source of National Offshore Wind Atlas
Albania
There is no atlas that could be found44;
Algeria
On-land wind mapping in a north-eastern region45;
Belgium
North Sea Wind Map Available for purchase from Garrad Hassan image available - and wind
47
meteorological data available
BosniaHerzegovina
on-land and offshore Wind Atlas on sale by ANEMOS48;
Bulgaria
2002 - Assessment of the Technical and Economic Potential of Wind Energy along the Black Sea
49
coast of Bulgaria and Romania
Croatia
on-land and offshore Wind Atlas on sale by ANEMOS50; a project is under way to develop
the Wind Atlas of the Adriatic Sea51;
Cyprus
on-land Wind Atlas reported by AEOLIKI Ltd52;
Denmark
North Sea Wind Map Available for purchase from Garrad Hassan image available , and South
53
Baltic Wind Map
46
46
There are dedicated programmes to collect data have been collected by the developers of
major wind farms however reports and data remain confidential.
Walney 151 MW 2008-2010
Gunfleet Sands 172 MW 2008-2010
Rødsand II offshore wind farm, 36 kV interturbine grid 207 MW 2007-2010
Meerwind, Germany 288 MW 2006
Egmond aan Zee, Nederlands 108 MW 2006
Rødsand II (Preliminary study) 215 MW 2005
Kentish Flats, UK 90 MW 2005
Arklow Bank, Ireland 25 MW 2003
Nysted Offshore Wind Farm, Denmark 165 MW 2003
Samsø Offshore Wind Farm, Denmark 23 MW 2003
Middelgrunden Offshore Wind Farm, Denmark 40 MW 2001
Vindeby Offshore wind farm 5 MW 1992
Egypt
on-land and offshore Wind Atlas54;
Finland
Finish Wind Atlas
France
May be available for purchase from Garrad Hassan in France also part of the regional
56
Mediterranean Wind and Wave Atlas . Also part of Risoe-DTU European Offshore Wind Resource
57
58
Atlas ; on-land and offshore Wind Atlas for the region “Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur” ;
Germany
North Sea Wind Map Available for purchase from Garrad Hassan image available
Greece
Part of the regional Mediterranean Wind and Wave Atlas
55
46
56
interactive on land Wind Atlas59; offshore (seasonal) wind maps60; identification of areas
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suitable for developing offshore wind power61;
62
63
Ireland
SEAI Wind Maps, interactive GIS and Garrad Hassan SEAI Commissioned Atlas
Italy
Part of the regional Mediterranean Wind and Wave Atlas and (2009) Resource And Technology
64
Assessment For Evaluating Italy’s Offshore Wind Energy Potential ; On and Off-shore Wind
56
Atlas interactively accessible65; Italian offshore wind potential investigated by RSE66;
Lebanon
on-land and offshore Wind Atlas presented by da Garrad & Hassan67;
Libya
the National Wind Atlas is under preparation68;
Malta
a project for installation of an offshore wind farm is being evaluated69,70;
Montenegro
estimate of wind resources over the whole territory71,72; on-land and offshore Wind Atlas
on sale by ANEMOS; studies on wind potential73;
Morocco
new, high-resolution on-land Wind Atlas under preparation74;
Netherlands
ECN Offshore Wind Atlas and North Sea Wind Map available from Garrad Hassan
Norway
Norwegian Offshore Wind Report or North Sea Wind Map Available for purchase from Garrad
46
Hassan image available
Poland
POWER D2.3 - The model for economical feasibility study of offshore wind power parks
Romania
2002 - Assessment of the Technical and Economic Potential of Wind Energy along the Black Sea
78
coast of Bulgaria and Romania
Spain
IDAE – On and Off-shore Wind Atlas ; Part of the regional Mediterranean Wind and Wave Atlas
Sweden
According to Risoe-DTU Document , the Swedish Wind Atlas is available from Krieg, R. (1992).
Vindatlas för Sverige. In Swedish. Slutrapport på projekt 506 269-2 på uppdrag av NUTEK. SMHI,
Norrköping. 26 pp. and Krieg, R. (1999). Verifiering af beräknad vindenergiproduktion. In Swedish.
SMHI rapport Nr. 28, SMHI, Norrköping. 25 pp + app.
Syria
on-land wind map81; evaluations of wind potential82;
Tunisia
on-land Wind Atlas developed by the Spanish research centre CENER83;
Turkey
Available for Purchase, Wind & Deepwater wave atlas for Turkish Coast
75
46
76
79
77
56
80
84
on-land and offshore Wind Atlas85; the offshore wind potential has been estimated at 10
GW at the recent conference Wind Power Turkey86;
UK
BERR UK Renewable Atlas
87
Table 1: Sources of National Offshore Wind Resource Data
3.5 Buoy Data
National sources of buoy data are detailed in Table 7 in Section 4.5 Buoy Data. The sections below give the
specific buoys used in each of the regions to validate the Quikscat model.
3.5.1
North Sea and Baltic Sea Region
The table below gives the location of offshore buoys used for validation of the QuikScat data in the North
Sea88 in a study carried out during the ORECCA project. The table displays the station name, geographical
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position, height of anemometer above sea level (a.s.l.), approximate effective duration of the data set in
days, the measurement period and the distance to the QuikScat point used for comparison. The
parentheses around a date indicate that there are few observations before this time.
Pos.
Measurement
Point
Meas. height
[m]
Geographical Position
Description
Dist. to
shore [km]
Time period
54° 43.00 N ; 13° 45.00 E
Buoy
16
10/02-11/04
54° 53.00 N ; 13° 52.00 E
Buoy
35
11/04-12/09
9
54° 42.00 N ; 12° 42.00 E
Mast
28
1995-2002
4
54° 36.00 N ; 11° 09.00 E
Buoy
8
2004-2009
9
54° 05.00 N ; 14° 10.00 E
Buoy
11
1997-2009
BALTIC SEA
1
Arkona Becken
89
1
2
Darßer Schwelle
3
Fehmarn Belt
4
10
Oder Bank
90
1
NORTH SEA
5
6
Deutsche Bucht
2
14
54 ° 10.00 N ; 07° 27.00 E
Lightship
45
2006-2009
14
54° 10.00 N ; 06° 21.00 E
Lightship
66
2006-2009
33, 40, 50, 71,
80, 90, 100
54° 00.00 N ; 06° 35.00 E
Met mast
45
08/03-12/09
10
55° 00.00 N ; 06° 20.00 E
Buoy
125
06/99-05/05
2
Ems
7
FINO1
8
NSB II
2,
91
2
10/07-12/09
9
NSB III
2
10
54° 41.00 N ; 06° 47.00 E
Buoy
98
09/05-06/07
since 07/10
Table 2: North Sea measurement buoys used to validate Quikscat data
Results of the series of field experiments CAPMOS'05-07-09, performed at an offshore oceanographic
platform in the Black Sea are available in the appendix. The platform located 600 m off shore was equipped
with a set of contact and remote sensors. Conventional contact sensors were used for direct measurements
of atmosphere and sea boundary layer parameters (wind speed and direction, air temperature, water
temperature and salinity profiles, etc.) whereas microwave and IR radiometers were used for remote
measurements of surface temperature and wave parameters92.
3.5.2
Atlantic Ocean Region
The north Atlantic region has measured offshore wind and wave data from numerous measurement buoys
primarily managed by the Met Office (UK) and Met Eireann (Ireland). The map of the available buoys in the
north Atlantic are shown in Figure 10 below, taken from the National Data Buoy Centre’s website.
In the south Atlantic a co-operative EUREKA project, RADSEANET93, was set up to provide a remote sensing
sea state monitoring network for the Iberian Peninsula as shown in Figure 11.
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Figure 10: Map of European
94
Meteorological Measurement Buoys
3.5.3
Figure 11: Map of RADSEANET Measurement Buoys
95
Mediterranean and Black Sea Region
A good survey of available information on wave and wind data in the Mediterranean Sea is given in a paper
that deals with the gathering of such data for studying stability of ships96.
Results of direct measurements of wind at offshore spots are very rare in the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
Existing buoys, as shown previously in Figure 8, belong to different networks and owners. Many buoys have
been installed only recently and most of those located in Italian waters have been intended for monitoring
other quantities of interest to climatology and seismology. In some cases, historical data, either raw and/or
processed, can be found and downloaded directly from websites; in other cases it is necessary to get in
touch with the operator that makes them available. Particularly:
Buoys of the Spanish network: data and information can be downloaded from the site97;
French buoys: Lyon buoy and Nice Buoy – data can be downloaded from the NOAA site 98;
Italian buoys:
-
CUMAS buoy (Gulf of Naples): raw data are available online from the site99;
-
ODAS buoy (Ligurian Sea): for raw data it is necessary to apply to concerned researchers; processed
data and statistics of measuring data are available from the site100;
-
ARPAV buoy (Veneto): to get raw data from the three buoys it is necessary to apply to ARPAV;
processed data can be found on the site101.
Buoys of the Greek network: information and data can be found on the site102.
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Data from these buoys have been used for comparison and/or calibration of the results of various
models103.
Measurements carried out on islands are another source of information, particularly when islands are flat,
uninhabited, uncovered and far from the mainland coasts, as is the case of Pianosa island in the Tremiti
archipelago, where an RSE wind measuring station has been set up, providing output data that can be
freely downloaded from the site65.
Lastly, there are measurements carried out at spots right on the shoreline: besides national and/or regional
measuring networks, historical wind data can be downloaded from the site104 for every country of the
world. A picture summarizing the information available over the Mediterranean and Black Sea area is given
in Figure 12.
Figure 12: Long-time average values of wind speed (m/s) measured by stations based offshore, on islands and on coasts in the
104
Mediterranean and Black Sea area. Source Windfinder , processing by RSE
In spite of the low precision of its data, this data base is a homogeneous information source over large
geographical areas. In this case the information should be taken with care, both because many of these
stations have been set up with measuring purposes that are different from wind energy evaluations, for
instance the stations placed in airports, and because it is generally very difficult, owing to the different
orography and land roughness between sea and land, to make evaluations of offshore wind resources on
the basis of measures taken on land, even by stations set right on the coasts.
A detailed study was carried out by Ditne on the wind characteristics in the Channel of Sicily (Lampedusa
Island and Vega Platform). Since there is a general lack of information about reliable wind data in the
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Mediterranean Sea, these wind data acquisitions off the Sicilian coast are very useful to provide a better
knowledge about wind resources in this promising area.
Station
Latitude
Longitude
Height
a.s.l.
(m)
Effective
duration
(days)
From-to
(mm.yyyy-mm.yyyy)
Distance
to
Quikscat point
[km]
Cote d’Azur
43.40
7.80
4.5
2891
01.2000-01.2008
33.3585
Gulf of Lyon
42.10
4.70
4.5
2645
07.2000-01.2008
0
Cabo Begur
41.915
3.645
3.5
1050
(06.2003)-09.2007
21.0998
Mahon
39.718
4.442
3.5
1250
(01.2004)-01.2008
26.1973
Cabo de Gata
36.570
-2.340
3.5
1945
07.1999-01.2008
25.1301
Alboran Sea
36.267
-5.033
3.5
1300
07.1999-02.2006
56.3261
Venice
45.3142
12.5083
15
1460
2001-2007
83.3677
Lesvos
39.15
25.80
6
550
01.2000-01.2003
55.1878
Mykonos
37.51
25.45
6
516
01.2000-12.2002
54.5989
Avgo
35.62
25.64
6
643
05.2000-12.2002
70.0451
Santorini
36.25
25.49
6
730
01.2000-12.2002
27.7987
Table 3:Location of offshore buoys used for validation of the QuikScat data in the Mediterranean Sea (Furevik et al 2011)
105
3.6 Data Selected for ORECCA GIS
In the ORECCA project QuikSCAT data have been used. Ten full year data (1999-2010) from the SeaWinds
scatterometer on board the NASA satellite QuikSCAT are available providing a robust estimate of wind
statistics, i.e. maps of mean wind speed, “wind speed and direction frequency distribution, inter-annual
and intra-annual indices that quantify temporal trends in near-surface wind-speeds to evaluate short-term
wind speed measurements in a climatological context. QuikScat winds have been extensively validated
against buoy data in the Atlantic and Pacific106,107,108,109. A comparison of QuikScat winds against wind
observations at weather station “M”39 showed a correlation of 0.93 with a root-mean-square deviation
(rmsd) of 1.6m/s for wind speeds ranging up to 30m/s. Less good agreement was noted when comparing to
data from large offshore constructions (oil rigs) and coastal stations. Less good agreement was also found
in the Mediterranean Sea110 when comparing QuikSCAT data with open sea buoy measurements in the
north-western part of the basin.
Use of quikscat for wind resources assessment in the Mediterranean using eight –year data has been39,88
presented in a preliminary study in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. For the ORECCA project Risoe-DTU
National Laboratory has produced a map of wind Speed from the Atlantic Ocean domain from QuikSCAT.
It should be borne in mind that measurements taken from satellites by means of scatterometers do have
rather high uncertainties (up to 2 m/s) especially in closed basins such as the Mediterranean Sea and, even
more, the Adriatic Sea or the Black Sea. In addition, the number of measurements are fewer in sea areas
closer to coasts, which are, conversely, of more interest in terms of possible locations for offshore wind
farms.
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Figure 13: North and Baltic Seas Region: Quikscat Average Annual Wind Speed Data at 10m a.s.l.
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Figure 14: Mediterranean and Black Seas Region: Quikscat Average Annual Wind Speed Data at 10m a.s.l.
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Figure 15: Atlantic Ocean Region: Quikscat Average Annual Wind Speed Data at 10m a.s.l.
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4
Wave Resource
4.1 General Information
4.1.1
Nomenclature
CNES – Centre National d’Études Spatiales
ECMWF – European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecast
ERS –European Remote Sensing Satellite
ESA –European Space Agency
NASA - National Aeronautics and Space
NCAR – National Centre for Atmospheric Research
NCEP – National Centres for Atmospheric Prediction
NDBC –National Data Buoy Centre
NOAA –National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
4.1.2
Wave Information Sources
The two basic sources of wave information are data obtained from direct or indirect measurement
techniques i.e. in situ or using remote sensing (both ground and satellite based), and results of numerical
wind-wave models. However, the first global source of wave data was visual observations carried out for
meteorological purposes on board commercial ships, which began to be archived in 1850 e.g. by British
Meteorological Office111.
In situ measurements provide realistic data but are not widely available. Remote sensed data, namely
satellite data, are becoming increasingly accurate and available.
Directional buoys often provide frequency spectra, in addition to the mean direction and it’s spreading for
each frequency band.
Often, an oceanic sea state will include both locally generated wind sea, whose dominant direction should
be that of the local wind, and swell, i.e. generally long period, far travelled waves generated up to several
days earlier by distant weather patterns. They may have a quite different dominant direction. In this case
an adequate summary of the sea state will require separate height, period and mean direction of wind-sea
and (occasionally more than one) swell components.
Numerical wind-wave models take as input wind fields over an ocean basin (or globally) and compute
directional spectra at the nodes of a grid extending over the considered basin(s). Although they are not
direct measurements and so cannot be fully relied on, model results present advantages, namely their
proven accuracy for extended oceanic areas and a very low ratio working costs/computational velocity.
Measured data and model results have shown to be complementary. A common practice to improve the
accuracy of these models is to calibrate their results against wave data, namely in situ and satellite data.
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Data Source
Device / Model
Measurements
In situ
Buoys and pressure, laser and
acoustic probes
Remote sensed
Satellite altimeter
Satellite SAR
Ground-based Radar
Wind-wave models
3rd generation models (WAM, WaveWatch III and other
models), and also UK Met Office model (2nd generation)
Table 4: Wave data sources and types
In Europe, the available in situ data is still far from sufficient for describing the offshore wave climate along
the continent. In fact, there is not yet a co-coordinated European-wide wave data collection paralleling the
network operated by NOAA in the USA for example. Neither is there a central repository and/or inventory
of European wave measurements. Most European countries have, however, over the years, carried out
data collection from buoys and offshore installations for different purposes, with responsibility for data
banking resting within the individual countries. A detailed description of the most commonly used wave
measuring sensors is given in the book “Waves in Oceanic and Coastal Waters”112.
Remote Sensed Measurements
As the ocean is a rough environment and in situ data are scarce, remote sensing techniques play an
increasingly important role in this context. Sensors such as the radar altimeter and the Synthetic Aperture
Radar (SAR) have the clear advantage that they penetrate clouds and are not dependent on sun
illumination of the remotely sensed objects. A disadvantage in their use is low frequency of measurements
which makes the resource statistics useful only in pre-feasibility studies or in combination with classical
offshore measurements and modelling results.
Wind-Wave Numerical Models
Wave modelling is the numerical solution of the equations that describe the physical processes of wave
growth, decay and propagation on the oceans, taking as input the wind fields over the ocean that are
produced by numerical atmospheric models. Steady improvements both in theory and computer power
have led over the last 20 years to very sophisticated atmospheric and wave models, now commonly used to
produce daily forecasts on global, regional and also site specific scales.
The two most relevant reanalysis programmes have produced data sets available for research. These are
the reanalysis from the joint effort of the NCEP and NCAR113 and the other is from ECMWF. These reanalysis
data sets present the advantage of being over a long term period and therefore suitable for meaningful
climatological analyses. ECMWF reanalysis datasets include ERA-40 producing wave data from 1957 to 2001
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over a basic resolution of 1.5° by 1.5°. The online Global Wave Climatology Atlas was derived from this 45year of ECMWF reanalysis data114.
Global Models
The first third-generation wave model was the WAM Model115 that was first implemented at ECMWF116. It
was further implemented in many centres, being distributed by the German Research Centre GKSS.
WAVEWATCH III (WW3) developed by NOAA/NCEP, differs in governing equations, numerical methods and
physical parameterizations117,118. Verifications and comparisons of wave models have shown that model
accuracy is continuously increasing namely due to data assimilation and statistical forecasts (ensemble
prediction)119.
Another relevant wind-wave model is the second generation UK Met Office wave model first developed in
1983120 and further updated.
Finally, the AES40 model121 has produced a 40-year (1958-1997) wind and wave hindcast for the North
Atlantic.
Table 5 presents an overview of the main global wind-wave numerical models.
Model ID
Description
Coverage
(Lat/Long)
(deg)
WW3
Global118
3rd generation,
data assimilation,
deterministic +
ensemble
WAM
(ECMWF)116
3rd generation,
data assimilation,
deterministic +
ensemble
WAM
3rd generation,
shallow water
GSM
(DWD)122
UKMO
2nd generation
Available
Data Type
Data Format
Availability
1.00 x 1.25
Hs, Tp,
GRIB and
Spectral text
bulletins in
ACSII
Since
03.2000
GRIB
Real-time
forecast /
Archived
forecast
0 W-258.75
E
81 S-81 N
Tm ,θm
S(f, )
0.25 x 0.25
0 W-259.5E
80.28 N-
Global Wave
Model123
AES40121
78 S-78 N
Grid
(Lat x Long)
(deg)
Hs, Tp, θm
S(f, )
0.75 x 0.75
Hs, Tp, θm
(sea &
swell)
-
5/9 x 5/6
Hs, Tp, θm
-
2000.06.01
2003.09.30
0.625 x
0.833
Hs, Tp, θm
for sea and
swell
BINARY
1958-1997
79.17 S
40-year (19581997) wind and
wave hindcast of
the North Atlantic;
OWI-3G model
0-70 N
82 W-20 E
Table 5: Main global numerical wind-wave models
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4.2
European Wave Resource Data
A preliminary assessment on ocean energy potential requires the compilation of realistic wave and wind
conditions, which can be embodied in the form of an atlas or other kinds of databases. The primary sources
of historical and actual compilations of ocean information are as follows:
Ocean Wave Statistics
Visual observations of commercial ships are done all over the oceans and seas and are collected by
meteorological institutions. The first archive of observations started in Britain in 1854. They have
systematically been collected since 1961 according to the Resolution 35 of the Worldwide Meteorological
Organisation. The most well-known compilations of these observations are the OWS (Ocean Wave
Statistics124) and after Global Wave Statistics (GWS125) which takes advantage of the experience of detected
biases in OWS to correct them.
The main advantage of GWS/OWS is the duration of the collection period. This information is most
interesting to shipping applications, because it takes into account bad weather avoidance and it is welldocumented for the major shipping routes. However for wave climate assessment it presents important
drawbacks namely the lack of information outside the main routes, the poor accuracy for periods (whereas
heights are well estimated by these experienced observers), and some deficiencies in seasonal variations
modelling and in reporting extremes.
WORLDWAVES (OCEANOR - 1995)
WorldWaves is an offshore database with a series of comprehensive high resolution interactive wind and
wave atlases which includes bathymetric data, ray-tracing and SWAN wave models, statistical analysis
package for offshore and near-shore analyses126. The package is a complete wave analysis and modelling
package for any country or region worldwide in deep-water and shallow-water127. The basic WorldWaves
database consists of wave model time series for 9,665 positions calibrated against Topex and Jason data
based primarily on satellite altimeter data. In addition to the data for these locations, Fugro OCEANOR
holds uncalibrated data in some 26,000 positions.
WERATLAS - European Offshore Wave Energy Resource Atlas (1996)
The European offshore wave energy resource is described in WERATLAS, developed within a European R&D
project128. This atlas was the first attempt to assess the offshore European wave energy resource using a
common methodology and homogeneous data sets whose accuracy was carefully evaluated. This wave
information is the result of the numerical wind-wave WAM model, run at ECMWF, as well as from buoy
data for the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea.
The verification of the WAM results was made by comparison against buoy data and satellite altimeter
data. It revealed that the accuracy of the results was very good for the North Atlantic, but the quality was
lower for the Mediterranean, likely due to poorer accuracy of the input wind fields.
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WERATLAS covers the North-eastern Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the Barents Sea, and the
Mediterranean Sea. Results for the North Africa coastline are also included.
The atlas includes a wide range of wave-climate and wave-power statistics, presented as tables and plots.
The basic resource statistics are the long-term annual value of wave power P and its directional distribution
(wave power rose). Other relevant statistics for the resource assessment are power exceedance curve
(percentage of time during which each power level is exceeded); univariate and bivariate frequency
distributions of Hs, Te, Tp and seasonal variation of P are also incorporated in this atlas.
Figure 16: Annual wave power roses for the northernmost part of the Northeastern Atlantic covered by WERATLAS. The figure
inside the rose represents the annual power level in kW/m.
4.3 Regional Wave Resource Data
Usually, global-scale wave models are only designed to provide general wave patterns over the deep ocean,
and do not describe information accurate enough to describe small-scale, complex wave patterns near the
coastal areas. Therefore, both WAM, WW3 and UKMO have regional or local models, which have higher
resolution in space and time in order to predict wave conditions adequately over the continental shelf and
near land boundaries.
Besides WAM, WW3 and UKMO regional/local models, there are other successful models with applications
at different parts of the globe.
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SWAN model129 for example is a spectral wave model based on the action density balance equation that
describes the evolution of two-dimensional wave energy spectra under specified conditions of winds,
currents, and bathymetry. It simulates wave propagation, accounting for refraction due to variations in
seabed and currents; shoaling, blocking and reflection due to opposing currents; and blockage, reflection or
transmission due to obstacles. SWAN can be used on any scale, although this model is specifically designed
for coastal applications where reflection and diffraction are not significant112.
MAR3G is a third-generation wind-wave model, complemented by an inverse-ray refraction model that
computes the directional spectra transformation from open-ocean to the nearshore. It is implemented in
the routine operation of Instituto de Meteorologia, Portugal where it is used for operational forecast130.
Shoaling, refraction, bottom dissipation, and shelter by the coastline and/or neighbouring islands are taken
into account131.
a
b
c
d
Figure 17: DMI-WAM models; a) North Atlantic; b) North Sea and Baltic Sea;
c) Inner Danish Waters; d) Mediterranean Sea
122
The Mediterranean region also has maps and statistics132 of significant quantities of waves (height, period,
direction) provided in Medatlas133. While a wave energy assessment of the Black sea has been reported134.
4.4 National Wave Resource Data
All coastal countries in Europe do not have a wave resource atlas or studies. It is typically those with a high
resource that have invested in quantifying the resource e.g. Portugal, Spain, Ireland, UK.
ONDATLAS (2003)
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ONDATLAS is a nearshore electronic atlas for Portugal containing comprehensive wave climate and wave
energy statistics for 78 points at about 20 m water depth spaced variably ca. 5–30 km, five points at deep
water, and two points at open ocean locations. The data were produced by model MAR3G. ONDATLAS
statistics comprise yearly and monthly values, variability and probability data for significant wave height,
energy (mean) period, peak period and wave power, and directional histograms for wave and power
direction. Joint probability distributions for various combinations of the above parameters are also
available, as well as extreme values and return period for wave height and period parameters. A summary
of the detailed verification of this model using long-term buoy measurements at four sites is presented. The
strong spatial variability that wave conditions exhibit at the coastal area is illustrated and a brief
assessment of the nearshore resource at the Portugal mainland is presented135. An ONDATLAS version for
Madeira Islands was developed by INETI136.
Atlas of UK Marine Renewable Energy Resources
The United Kingdom has developed an atlas of its Marine Renewable Energy Resources namely tide, wave
and offshore wind that can be downloaded online137. It is constituted by maps of these marine renewable
resources.
The purpose of the atlas was to quantify and spatially map the potential wave, tidal and offshore wind
resource at a regional scale across the limits of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). The atlas has been built
from the best source of wave, tide and offshore wind information presently available across the UKCS.
Accessible Wave Energy Resource Atlas: Ireland (2005)
The Irish Wave Power Atlas 2005 is based on initial comparison between several years of hourly wave
forecasts (using WAM model) on a grid of points located off the Irish coast with corresponding records from
a number of buoys installed in recent years.
Based on the level of agreement found the wave forecasts were then modified slightly and used to
estimate and map the mean annual power and energy resources at the theoretical, technical, practicable
and accessible levels.
The work builds on previous studies to advance understanding of the factors that influence the scale and
distribution of these resources. It also places them in context with other users of these waters to facilitate
decision making and minimize possible hindrance to future resource utilization138.
National Information
Some national and/or regional maps and/or atlases for countries in Europe are listed in Table 6 below.
Country
National Wave Resource Atlas Sources
Belgium
Meteorological Data and a paper looking at Belgian Wave Energy Resource; 2007-Beels-Wave Energy on
140
141
the Belgian Continental Shelf ; also included in the Wave Energy Resource in the North Sea
139
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Denmark
Bølgeenergiatlas, 1985, Kim Nielsen, Instituttet for Skibs og Havteknik, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet is
available in Danish and the document "Mapping the wave ratio in the Danish Part of the North Sea" is
142
available in Danish
The country is also included in a study on Wave Energy Resource in the North Sea
143
Egypt
A study of a wave-powered desalination plant in the Mediterranean Sea144.
France
Part of the regional Mediterranean Wind and Wave Atlas
56
145
Nearshore Wave Energy Atlas available for purchase and (2009) Wave energy resource off the French
146
coasts: the ANEMOC database applied to the energy yield evaluation of Wave Energy Converters
Greece
Part of the regional Mediterranean Wind and Wave Atlas
56
offshore (seasonal) maps147;
148
Ireland
SEAI Wave Atlas and Interactive GIS
Italy
Vicinanza, D., Cappietti, L., Contestabile, P. (2009). "Assessment of Wave Energy around Italy"
150
56
Interactive GIS and Part of the regional Mediterranean Wind and Wave Atlas
149
;
An atlas collecting significant quantities of waves in Italian seas has been published151 and a
study on energy potential along coasts is under publication152.
Malta
evaluations for installing a demonstration plant153;
Netherlands Wave Energy Resource in the North Sea
143
Norway
Wave Energy Resource in the North Sea
143
Portugal
ONDATLAS for mainland (to be purchased from Instituto Portuário e dos Transportes Marítimos - IPTM)
and ONDATLAS for Madeira archipelago (to be downloaded from www2.aream.pt/ondatlas) include
nearshore and offshore wave power statistics
Spain
a full study has been published on wave characteristics along the coasts of Spain for purposes of energy
155
potential evaluation; including the Mediterranean Sea ;
or specific Dutch atlas available for purchase from Alkyon
IDAE - Wave and Tidal Resource Interactive Map
156,157
Also part of the regional Mediterranean Wind and Wave Atlas
Spanish regional Atlas de Ondas de Galicia
Turkey
56
158
a wave Atlas has been published159 as well as studies on wave energy potential, which estimate a
technical potential of about 10 TWh/year with annual average power of 4 to 17 kW/m160;
Available for Purchase, WIND & DEEP WATER WAVE ATLAS FOR TURKISH COAST
UK
154
161
As wind
Table 6: Sources of National Wave Resource Data
4.5 Buoy Data
As far as measurements are concerned, like in all offshore areas, measured data of wave height and period
have been made available by the QuikSCAT38 satellite, which acquired them over 10 years (from 1999 to
2009). Information and direct measuring data can be found and often downloaded from the following sites:
Country
National Buoy Data Sources
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Belgium
162
Hydro Meteo Atlas ,
Some UK Met Office Buoys available off the coast (See UK Buoy Data)
Denmark
Wind offshore measured data
163
Some UK Met Office Buoys available off the coast (See UK Buoy Data)
France
164 165
Meteo France Data available ,
Lyon buoy and Nice buoy – Data can be downloaded from the NOAA site98
Some UK Met Office Buoys available off the coast (See UK Buoy Data)
Greece
information and requests for data on the site102
Iceland
Wave Buoy Data Sets available from the Icelandic Maritime Administration
167
locations available
Ireland
Real time data and co-ordinates of buoys - available on request
Italy
Italian Meteorological Buoy Data available from ISPRA National Wave Measuring Network (Rete
170
Ondametrica Nazionale)
Norway
Some information available from the National Data Buoy Network, information is all privately owned
171
data from offshore platforms ; Recent Data available from Surf Websites http://www.surfforecast.com/breaks/Klitmoller/buoys and http://magicseaweed.com/Norway-Surf-Forecast/52/
Portugal
Map of measurement buoys and data available from Portuguese Hydrographic Institute (Instituto
172
Hidrografico Marinha de Portugal)
Spain
Data and Buoy Locations can be downloaded from the site97,173
UK
National Data Buoy Center
168
166
and map of buoy
169
174
Table 7: National Buoy Data Sources
4.6 Data Selected for ORECCA GIS
The data used in the OCEANOR map originate from the ECMWF WAM model archive and are calibrated and
corrected (by OCEANOR) against a global buoy and Topex satellite altimeter database. The data is one of
the highest accuracy wave energy maps produced to date.175
The Fugro-OCEANOR wave data, WorldWaves, has been used in the ORECCA project due to its quality and
consistency across all of the 3 regions in Europe and due to its accessibility and availability for research
purposes.
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Figure 18: North and Baltic Seas: OCEANOR GIS Map - Calculated average wave power and input point database
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Figure 19: Mediterranean and Black Seas: OCEANOR GIS Map - Calculated average wave power and input point database
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Figure 20: Atlantic Ocean: OCEANOR GIS Map - Calculated average wave power and input point database
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5
Tidal Current Resource
5.1 General
There is generally a lack of widespread tidal stream resource data across Europe. Although a few countries
with particularly good tidal resource have developed national models, which are publically available and
show the resource in bins in a grid around the coastline.
Tidal stream resource is very site specific, and although many of these areas of high tidal stream are known
colloquially, there is generally not a lot of information available for many of these sites.
Tidal diamonds on navigational charts can give a good first approximation, and although they have been
known to contain errors, being derived from measured data, they can generally be considered to be
accurate. As this is essentially point data, it does not give a good idea of the spatial variability of the
resource.
Tidal diamond datasets are obtained from measurements made from a boat at a fixed point over a 12 hour
period. Every hour, a current meter is deployed over the side of the anchored boat and the current is read
off with the meter just below the surface. The measurements are made during a meteorologically quiet
period (otherwise residual flows have to be removed), and factored based on the mean spring and neap
tidal range at a chosen reference port to reflect these conditions. The main disadvantage of tidal diamonds
is that the period of observation on which they are based is very short (generally less than 25 hours);
therefore this is only able to encapsulate the most basic tidal constituents.
Several national and regional studies have looked at tidal resource; these are discussed in the relevant
sections below. These studies have so far tended to concentrate on the very best, high flow sites, based on
the cut-in and rated speeds of existing first generation machines. Whereas this approach is acceptable for
early projects, there are some systems that are designed to generate power from lower velocity currents.
In many cases these use flow enhancement systems and techniques such as venturis and blockage effects.
5.2 European
5.2.1
GIS Data Layer
The European tidal resource used for the ORECCA project is presented as an interrogate-able GIS data layer.
The resource data used to generate the tidal stream resource GIS data layer consists of 105 different sites,
which were derived from a number of separate studies. These were:
Atlas of UK Marine Renewable Energy Resources (see section 5.4 for more details)
Phase II UK Tidal Stream Energy Resource Assessment – Black & Veatch, July 2005 (see section 5.4
for more details)
CENEX: Tidal and marine currents exploitation – IT Power, 1994 (see below for more details)
The Analysis of Tidal Stream Power - Jack Hardisty, 2009 (see section 5.3 for more details)
In addition, IT Power’s own site finding work and our extensive database of proposed marine renewable
projects were used to supplement these studies, particularly for the less well studied areas.
Sites with a flow speed below 1.75m/s mean spring peak were not considered for the GIS layer, because as
discussed in section 5.1, the majority of current tidal stream turbines are unable to extract much energy
from flows below this value. The approximate area of each site is shown in the data layer. For several
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regions, a number of different sites/areas are identified, which may overlap slightly. The areas are very
approximate and represent the areas of high flow; it will not be possible to develop the entire area for each
site.
For each of the sites in the GIS layer, the following fields were also populated:
Area - European area
Name - Site Name
Study - Reference study
Study_Ref - Reference study site number
Source – Source of data used in reference study
Depth (m)
Vsp_m_s - Mean Sprint Peak velocity (m/s)
Vnp_m_s - Mean Sprint Neap velocity (m/s)
Power_MW - Extractable power (MW)
Energy_MWh - Energy output (MWh/year)
Seabed - Seabed type
Figure 21: Tidal Points across Europe as produced by the GIS
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5.2.2
European Wide Studies
CENEX: Tidal and marine currents exploitation – IT Power, 1994:
The objective of this project was to assess the possibilities and potential of exploiting tidal and marine
currents for power generation in Europe. The outcome from this project was an overview of the potential
for tidal current exploitation in Europe derived from desk studies based on navigation charts and pilotage
publications. A digital version of the atlas was produced in a searchable tabulated format.
5.3 Regional
There are very few regional studies looking at the tidal stream resource in Europe. This is largely because
other than the UK, Ireland, western France and the Channel Islands, the tidal stream resource for the rest
of Europe is relatively poor. The following sources of data cover the three ORECCA regions (the North Sea
and Baltic Sea Region, the Atlantic Ocean Region and the Mediterranean and Black Sea Region):
The British Oceanographic Data Centre (see section 5.4) have datasets that cover the three ORECCA
regions.
A book by Jack Hardisty, published in 2009, ‘The Analysis of Tidal Stream Power‘, has resource
figures for certain sites in these three regions.
The UK Hydrographic Office (see section 5.4) publishes 22 different tidal stream atlases covering
the entire UK coast, the North Sea and the west coast of France.
5.3.1
North Sea and Baltic Sea Region
The tidal resource in this region is almost entirely clustered around the Pentland Firth, the Orkney and
Shetland Islands and the south coast of England. The resource in the Pentland Firth alone has been
estimated to be 8.9TWh/y176. The approximate resource in other good sites in this region has been
estimated as follows:
South England: 535GWh/y
Orkneys: 460GWh/y
Shetland Islands: 470GWh/y
There is very little tidal stream resource to speak of in the East of the North Sea or the Baltic Sea.
5.3.2
Atlantic Ocean Region
The resource in the Atlantic region is primarily focused around the UK, northern France and the Channel
Islands. Total technically extractable resource around the Channel Islands has been estimated to be 3TWh
per year176.
The approximate resource in other good sites in this region have been estimated as follows:
West of Scotland: 1.1GWh/y
Northern Ireland: 1GWh/y
Wales: 570GWh/y
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5.3.3
Mediterranean and Black Sea Region
In the Mediterranean and Black Seas, the resource is in distinct areas such as Gibraltar, Messina and small
areas of the Aegean Sea. In all cases, the flow is towards the lower limit of the velocities used in this study
(>1.75m/s).
The general opinion is that these resources cannot give significant contributions to energy production, with
few exceptions in areas such as the Strait of Gibraltar, the Strait of Messina, the area of the Bosporus and
the Dardanelles, where the particular shapes of surrounding land and sea bottom are capable of
accelerating water masses, see Figure 22: Distribution of Tidal Current Locations across Europe
.
Figure 22: Distribution of Tidal Current Locations across Europe
177
It should however be noted that, following recent developments in device technology for tidal energy
conversion, even other zones, albeit less rich in resources, could turn out to be of some interest, as can be
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seen from the results of a study carried out by RSE178, and from another study about the tides and tidal
current energy potential in the Greek seas179.
5.4 National
UK:
The technically extractable tidal stream resource around the UK has been estimated to be between
18TWh176 and 94.4TWh180 per year, from up to 35.9GW180 of installed capacity. Approximately 28,000km2 of
UK waters are estimated to be suitable for tidal technology, which represents 3.1% of the UK Continental
shelf180.
Due to the magnitude of the tidal resource around their coastline, the UK has by far the most detailed and
readily available data for tidal stream resource. The following in particular are good sources of tidal stream
data for the UK:
The Atlas of UK Marine Renewable Energy Resources - The Atlas represents the most detailed
regional description of potential marine energy resources in UK waters ever completed to date at a
national scale. The model, which was derived from the POL HRCS model, has a horizontal resolution
of approximately 1 nautical mile (1.8km). GIS datalayers for the atlas can be downloaded free of
charge87.
The British Oceanographic Data Centre (a national facility for looking after and distributing data
concerning the marine environment) holds an enormous number of physical, biological, chemical
and geophysical datasets measured in UK waters and around the globe. These are taken from a
multitude of different studies, several of which measured marine current velocities. Several of
these are freely available, whilst others are only available to purchase or free for academic
research181.
The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) publishes 22 different tidal stream atlases covering the entire
UK coast, the North Sea and the west coast of France. A tidal atlas usually consists of a set of 12 or
13 diagrams, one for each hour of the tidal cycle, for a coastal region. Each diagram uses arrows to
indicate the direction of the flow at that time. The speed of the flow may be indicated by numbers
on each arrow or by the length of the arrow. Areas of slack water may be indicated by no arrows or
the words ‘slack water’182.
All the leading hydraulic / hydrographic modelling companies and many universities in the UK have
their own tidal current models on a national, regional and local scale. These companies include; HR
Wallingford, ABP MER, Metoc and The National Oceanography Centre (formerly the Proudman
Oceanographic Laboratory).
In addition to these datasets, a large number of resource or site studies have been carried out for the UK
coastline. The most interesting are the following:
Atlas of UK Marine Renewable Energy Resources – ABPmer et al, March 2008.
Estimation of Electricity Generation at South West Coastal Sites – IT Power (for SWRDA), November
2010.
Marine Renewable Energy Strategic Framework for Wales.
Matching Renewable Electricity Generation with Demand - University of Edinburgh, February 2006.
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Offshore Renewables Resource Assessment and Development (ORRAD) Project – PMSS (for
SWRDA), October 2010.
Phase II UK Tidal Stream Energy Resource Assessment – Black & Veatch, July 2005.
Potential Nature Conservation and Landscape Impacts of Marine Renewable Energy Developments
in Welsh Territorial Waters – ABPmer (for CCW), February 2005.
Quantification of Exploitable Tidal Energy Resources in UK Waters – ABPmer, July 2007.
Seapower SW Review – Metoc (for SWRDA), January 2004.
Tapping the Tidal Power Potential of the Eastern Irish Sea University of Liverpool (Joule Centre),
December 2008.
Tidal Power in the UK, Report 1 UK Tidal Resource Assessment – Metoc (for SDC), October 2007.
Tidal Power in the UK, Report 5 UK Case Studies – AEA Energy & Environment (for SDC), October
2007.
UK Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment.
Variability of UK Marine Resources – Environmental Change Institute (for the Carbon Trust), July
2005.
Ireland:
The “Tidal and Current Energy Resource in Ireland” report by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland
(SEAI) provides detailed information on the tidal range and current resource in Ireland and identifies a
number of sites.
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Figure 23: Irish Tidal Current Resource
Italy:
In 2010-2011 a study has been undertaken by RDS in co-operation with the University of Milan-Bicocca
Fehler! Verweisquelle konnte nicht gefunden werden.. This study aims to evaluate, along the Italian coast,
the amount of energy potentially derivable from marine currents and to find out the most promising sites
for power generation.
To get this purpose, the first step of research activities is to collect and organize the available
environmental and current data, paying particular attention to those measured in coastal waters, and to
evaluate them in terms of coherence with the general trend of the Mediterranean Sea. More precisely, the
analysis of the data collected, together with environmental evaluation criteria, aims to select those areas
which represent the greatest potential in terms of energy resources.
The different phases of the methodology for assessing the energy potential from marine currents can be
summarized as follows:
Marine weather data collection;
Assessment of current fields;
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Simulation of the potential energy;
Estimation of the environmental sustainability of investigated sites;
The search of meteo-marine data has been led at regional level along the coastline, from the coasts of
Veneto to those of Liguria, without omitting the two islands of Sicilia and Sardinia. At first, the research has
been conducted on the web: the web sites of the regional environment agencies have been visited to verify
the presence, distribution and typology of sea-meteo monitoring systems and data; further information has
been collected from web sites related to national institutions and research centres such as CNR, ISMAR,
OGS, IAMC, NODC, from portals such as that of the National Navy (Istituto Idrografico della Marina Militare)
and from databases like ARCHIMEDE and MOON, Osservatorio Mareografico IDROMARE and Osservatorio
Meteorologico EUROMETEO. At last, also private web sites have been investigated.
Other:
The following table outlines the sources of national tidal current data.
Country
Tidal Resource Source
Belgium
Meteorological Data available
Ireland
Marine Institute - Tidal and Current Energy Resources Report
Netherlands
Tidal Heights and Streams along Dutch Coast available annually
Spain
IDAE - Wave and Tidal Resource Interactive Map
UK
BERR UK Renewable Atlas
183
156,157
87
Table 8: Sources of National Tidal Current Resource data
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6
Sources of Other Relevant Data
The following tables give national and European sources for relevant site selection data as uncovered
during the course of the ORECCA Project. This data can be used to aid in more detailed resource and site
selection studies.
National Data Sources
Country
National Data Sources
Denmark
Other Users: Offshore Center Denmark
France
186
Marine Protected Areas: French Marine Protected Areas Centre187 (Agence des aires
marines protégées)
Other Users: French Military188 (Ministère de la Defence) which may be able to provide
information on military marine exercise areas.
Ireland
Marine Protected Areas: MIDA – Marine Irish Digital Atlas – Interactive Atlas with layers
showing MPAs, access points, heritage areas, etc.189 and National Parks and Wildlife
Services190 (NPWS) provides downloadable GIS data for designated protected areas.
Geological Seabed Mapping: The INFOMAR programme191 is a joint venture between the
Geological Survey of Ireland and the Marine Institute and is the successor to the Irish
National Seabed Survey. Covering some 125,000 km² of Irelands most productive and
commercially valuable inshore waters, INFOMAR will produce integrated mapping
products192 covering the physical, chemical and biological features of the seabed.
Bathymetry: Joint Irish Bathymetric Survey (JIBS)193 - The Maritime and Coastguard Agency
(MCA) lead the Project, approved under the INTERREG IIIA Programme, with the Marine
Institute of Ireland as project partner and the Environment and Heritage Service,
Department of the Environment (NI) as coordinators. The objective of the JIBS Project was
to promote joint action to survey the seabed in such a way as to satisfy the needs of many
organisations and to provide comprehensive multibeam bathymetry data over prioritised
areas within the 3nm coastal strip between Donegal Bay and Dundalk Bay.
Electricity Network: ESB Grid Infrastructure Interactive Map194
Italy
High Voltage Electric Transmission grid195;
Marine Protected Areas196;
Other Users: Ministry of Defence197
Norway
Portugal
PEMAP GIS Database including circa 20 layers relevant for site selection (LNEG, Ministry of Economy),
namely wave resource, MPAs, electrical grid and substations, military exercise areas, ports, shipyards,
roads, bathymetry, seabed slope, geological composition of seabed and active seismic faults
Spain
Other Users: Spanish Military198 (Ministerio de Defensa) which may be able to provide
information on military marine exercise areas
UK
Marine Protected Areas: UK Marine Protected Areas Centre199 provides an interactive
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webGIS of all MPAs in the UK.
Users of the Sea: Scotlands Marine Atlas200 provides information on other users of the sea
(fisheries, military, oil and gas, beaches etc) for Scottish waters
Table 9: National: Relevant Data Sources
European Data Sources
Data
European Data Source
Marine Protected Areas
EU MAIA Project201 – Marine Protected Areas in the Atlantic Arc – aims to share
experiences about MPA management tools and to research methodologies to
enhance stakeholder’s involvement in the MPA designation process. Consists of
9 major partners (public organisations and NGOs) from 4 countries: United
Kingdom, France, Spain, and Portugal
OSPAR Project202
Link to EU members Natura 2000 sites203
Natura 2000 sites on European Environment Agency website204
Electrical Grid
Global Energy Network Institute (GENI)205,
European Network of Transmission system operators (ENTSO-E)206
Ports
World Shipping Register207
Other Users
Fisheries: European Atlas of the Seas208 gives fisheries information and port
locations for European coasts
Shipping: ESA satellite data209 and Med Shipping: SAFEMED210
Oil and Gas Fields: US Geographical Society Map211
Seabed Habitats: EMODnet212
Geology
MESH213
GEOSEAS214
Table 10: Europe: Relevant Data Sources
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7
GIS Development
7.1 Introduction
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) allow the collecting and processing of geographic data/information
with specific elaborations in order to supply easily understandable thematic maps. The data/information
implemented in a GIS project can be stored using different data models (vector, raster, etc), file formats
(feature classes, shape files or coverage) and datasets. Through the GIS interface they can be visualized as
map themes or layers. The use of GIS for assessing offshore renewable energy potential has been in use for
more than a decade215,216. Recent studies concerning offshore wind potential through GIS evaluations have
been carried out for Denmark217, Portugal218 and Virginia219, for all of Europe220 and all of the U.S.A.221.
Moreover a study from the University of Tuscia (Italy) concerns a GIS approach to the development of a
“uses of the sea” map. This map supports the site selection for the installation of ocean energy converters
along Italian coasts222.
For the ORECCA project the GIS tool enabled the nature of the resource to be examined such that
quantitative estimates on areas with certain resource levels, at different water depth and distance from
shore intervals, could be directly queried. Such an analysis provided very useful information regarding how
the available resource was divided and what would be the more likely technologies types (fixed or floating
platforms) required for exploitation purposes. In addition the GIS contained other relevant information in
graphical format, ports, grid network etc, which was used to identify suitable sites as well as potential
bottlenecks and opportunities into the future.
7.2 Background
When developing a GIS with the purpose of evaluating prospective developments of multi-purpose
offshore platforms there are quite a number of factors that have to be taken into account. These factors
typically have marked multidisciplinary characteristics, as can be seen from the following list:
Energy resource characteristics; historical data, statistics and maps, resource atlases and field
measurements. These have been described for the offshore European regions in the previous
sections;
Bathymetry, geomorphology includes water depth and features of the sea bottom, geological
composition of the relevant seabed, seismic areas etc.
Climate, extreme meteorological and climatic conditions to be considered for designing energy
conversion devices, climate changes;
Current state-of-the-art of technologies of commercially available or prototype devices for
producing energy from wind, waves, tides, currents, and related foundations and/or moorings for
installation at sea.
Synergies between devices, activities, structures and infrastructures;
Aspects related to infrastructures, such as ports, shipyards, production clusters, fleets of suitable
ships and other craft for installation and maintenance of offshore plants;
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Aspects of design, construction, operation and maintenance;
Economic aspects;
Environmental aspects;
Landscape aspects;
Aspects relating to constraints, rules, standards, legislation, permitting and financing;
Uses of sea and MPS (Marine Spatial Planning);
Social aspects, such as public’s acceptance, interaction with human activities such as tourism and
fishing, creation of new jobs.
The planning and development of an offshore renewable energy farm is thus a complicated process with
inter-linkages between the factors listed above. For any development to proceed it is necessary for both
the developer and regulator to be satisfied that certain criteria related to these parameters are satisfied
The ORECCA project thus had a requirement to collect widely varied information and the starting point was
the world-wide web. This source provided large amounts of useful data. However, only information that
has been considered to be relevant, reliable and up-to-date has been selected and reported. Other
information was obtained from exchanges between the ORECCA partners or by contacting external
organisations. All data source locations will be referenced either in the traditional manner or by providing
the relevant web address. It should be noted that websites are dynamic and that there is no guarantee
that the reference will continue to exist into the future.
The following sections describe the data sources, the GIS assembly as well as the rationale behind the
various classifications that were used for the various relevant parameters.
7.3 Data Sources
The following are the primary data sources that were used for the development of the GIS.
7.3.1
European
Data Type
Data Source
Bathymetry
GEBCO Bathymetry (30 arc-second grid- cell size: 0.008333°
corresponding to 750 m x 900 m at Madeira latitude and to 820 m x
1600m at Iceland latitude)223
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
From Encyclopaedia of the Earth224,225
Countries
EU-countries; EFTA countries; other countries from the Economic and
Social Research Institute (ESRI) 226
Population
Cities population from the ESRI Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
Ports
Location and draft of Ports from ships register227 and IWES ports
database
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Offshore Wave and
Locations Database
Tidal From IWES Fraunhofer
Marine Protected Areas (MPA)
From Protected Planet website228 and Natura 2000 sites from European
Environment Agency229
Wind Speeds
QuikScat annual mean wind speed map @10 m a.s.l.
Risoe-DTU and Norwegian Meteorological Institute232)
Wave Power
OCEANOR average annual wave power map233 and Weratlas database234
(source INETI)
Tidal Current Sites
Tidal current sites from IWES Fraunhofer database and European tidal
stream sites from ITPower database
230 231
,
(Source:
Table 11: European Wide Data Sources used in GIS Tool
Figure 24: GEBCO bathymetry map of European seas
7.3.2
Regional
Wind measurements from coastal stations and buoys in Mediterranean and Black Sea Area235;
Mediterranean and Black Sea offshore wind farms database236;
North Sea, Baltic Sea and Atlantic Ocean offshore wind farms database(source: IWES);
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7.3.3
National
Italian Wind Atlas237 (source RSE);
UK Marine Renewable Energy Resource Atlas238;
Galicia information: bathymetry, ports, coastal infrastructures, coastal wind farms, coastal
protected areas (source INEGA).
7.4 GIS Tool Assembly
Three target areas/regions are considered in the ORECCA project (for boundaries see images in Section 2):
North and Baltic Sea;
Atlantic Ocean;
Mediterranean and Black Sea.
The information/data collected were in different formats therefore in order to perform quantitative
analysis it was necessary to have a common reference grid for the representation of the layers involved in
the calculation process.
Calculations were performed using the following information:
wind and wave resource;
sea depth;
distance from shore.
The following steps describe how the data/information was prepared:
WGS84 World Reference system was chosen;
wind and availability maps: a grid with 0.25°x0.25° cell was built from provided databases with
annual mean wind speed and data availability (no information on data availability is present for the
Mediterranean and Black Sea Area)
wind map grid was chosen as reference grid;
Sea depth map: GEBCO bathymetry was recalculated on the reference grid and classified according
5 depth classes i.e. sea depth: 0-25m, 25-60m, 60-200m, 200-500m, greater than 500m (explained
in section 7.5.1);
distance from shore: 4 categories of distances were calculated from shoreline on the reference grid
(0-50km, 50-100km, 100-150km, 150-200km, explained in section 7.5.2)
wave map: interpolation was performed on the provided database using the “Natural Neighbour”
method on the reference grid (details about the OCEANOR input point database are reported in the
images of Section 4).
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7.5 GIS Classification Rationale and Initial Output
7.5.1
Bathymetry and Sea Bottom Morphology
The water depth and the seabed morphology affect the choice of the type of foundations and consequently
the related costs. For 0-25m water depth (“shallow waters”) fixed foundations such as mono-piles or
gravity foundations can be installed. For 25-60m water depth (“transitional waters”) the more novel jacket,
tripod or suction bucket foundations are more suitable. For deeper waters, floating systems are required
but these are still not at a commercial stage of development239,240. To get a preliminary indication of the
areas where the different technologies could be installed, four classes of sea depth have then been defined
for the GIS, two of which refer to fixed turbine foundations (shallow waters 0-25m and transitional waters
25-60m, as already stated and two (60-200m and 200-500m, respectively) require floating support
platforms of different characteristics.
Figure 25: Classification of water depths (bathymetry) as a function of applicable types of foundation (Image courtesy of RSE)
Bathymetry maps from the GEBCO site223 were downloaded for the GIS. The map shown in Figure 24,
provides isobathic lines for the whole of Europe, has a resolution of 30 arc seconds. This data was used to
provide maps for the four classes of bathymetry in each of the three geographical regions and are shown in
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Figure 26 to Figure 28. These plots also show the Economic Exclusion Zones (EEZ) for each of the countries
in the three regions.
Other information on sea bottom and seabed conditions cannot be determined but is available from
nautical charts. Although an analysis of these depths will be carried out in a later section it can be seen
that there can be fundamental differences both within and between regions regarding the bathymetry
profiles.
Figure 26: North and Baltic Sea Bathymetry map using depth classifications (source RSE)
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Figure 27: Mediterranean and Black Seas Bathymetry map using depth classifications (source RSE)
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Figure 28: Atlantic Ocean Bathymetry map using depth classifications (source RSE)
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7.5.2
Distance from Shore
The distance from shore is a parameter that can have different influences on the feasibility of a proposed
development. If located further offshore there is a reduction in visual impacts, but the costs and power
losses of lines connecting plants with on-land electrical grids increase. A number of countries do not
typically allow wind farms to be located within 25km of the shoreline. Currently s offshore wind farms are
mainly located within 50 km from shore, but a significant number are now planned for distances up to
100km. Some announcements of installation of offshore wind farms up to 200 km from shore have been
reported241,242.
Considering the timeframe of the project, it was decided that for the purposes of the analysis 200km from
shore would be the outer limit for offshore developments. Inside of this limit the distances would be
divided into the following categories as calculated from the shoreline on the reference grid; 0-50km, 50100km, 100-150km and 150-200km. Figure 29 to Figure 31 show the extent of these regions for the three
geographical regions.
Figure 29: North and Baltic Seas: Distances from Shore Buffer Zones in GIS (Source: RSE)
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Figure 30: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Distances from Shore Buffer Zones in GIS (Source: RSE)
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Figure 31: Atlantic Ocean: Distances from Shore Buffer Zones in GIS (Source: RSE)
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7.5.3
Seismic Activity
Specific to the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins, an important aspect to be considered is seismic
activity, which can cause earthquakes and sea-quakes (tsunami). An indicative map relating to Europe is
shown in Figure 32.
Figure 32: Map of seismic activity in Europe
7.5.4
243
Environmental Aspects
There are some websites from which available databases and maps covering zones belonging to the
network of Natura 2000244 and Marine Protected Areas245 can be downloaded.
These data bases are not complete in some marine areas/states and need to be supplemented with locally
available information. In this respect, a useful data collection is available66. Useful EU Guidance on wind
energy development in accordance with the EU nature legislation has been recently published246. The
installation of offshore wind farms could in principle be considered for marine protected areas but appropriate
assessment of its implications would need to be made and dedicated mitigation measures applied. For wave
and tidal current development, environmental studies are ongoing, as few devices have thus far been
installed. Some examples of specific studies are available247,248 e.g. a very recent study gives some positive
and negative impacts on the environment249.
Gathering full information on Marine Protected Areas (MPA) is very important and for the purposes of
ORECCA the MPA map and the Natura2000 sites map were used. Figure 33 to Figure 35 show the MPA
maps for the three geographical regions.
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Figure 33: North and Baltic Seas: MPA Map from GIS (Source: RSE)
Figure 34: Mediterranean and Black Seas: MPA Map from GIS (Source: RSE)
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.
Figure 35 – Atlantic Ocean: MPA Map from GIS (Source: RSE)
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7.5.5
Ports
The location and characteristics of sea ports that can accommodate ships and other facilities for transport,
assembly and installation of offshore renewable energy platforms can heavily affect the local/regional
suitability for exploiting the relevant offshore renewable resources. It is likely that the nature and capacity
of ports in a given region will need to change to accommodate the nature of activities that are required to
sustain an offshore renewable energy industry. It is possible that in each country certain large ports will
become hubs for the manufacture and installation of devices whilst others will be important for operation
and maintenance purposes.
At the 2nd ORECCA Workshop in The Hague, 7-8th June 2011, a minimum required port draft for installation
of offshore renewable energy projects was identified to be 10-15m by the infrastructure discussion group.
The GIS used the e-ship website (Ports250) and the IWES Ports database to collect information on ports and
then filtered these to those with a minimum of 10m draft. These ports for the three geographical regions
are shown in Figure 36 to Figure 38.
Figure 36: North and Baltic Seas: All Ports Map from GIS (Source: RSE)
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Figure 37: Mediterranean and Black Seas Region: All Ports Map from GIS (Source: RSE)
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Figure 38: Atlantic Ocean Region: All Ports Map from GIS (Source: RSE)
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7.5.6
Cities
Large population centres are important both for providing outlets for the generated energy and as a base
for companies and staff working in the renewables sector. For the ORECCA GIS, cities with populations in
excess of 50,000 as obtained from the ESRI were included (Figure 39 to Figure 41).
Figure 39: North and Black Seas: Cities GIS Map (Source: RSE)
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Figure 40: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Cities GIS Map (Source: RSE)
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Figure 41: Atlantic Ocean: Cities GIS Map (Source: RSE)
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7.5.7
Electrical grid
The structure of existing electrical grids has to be considered for short-term scenarios, but in the longerterm, depending on the scale of offshore renewable developments, dedicated offshore grids are likely to be
required. There is also the possibility that storage of energy produced offshore, through pumping of water
into large reservoirs, may also become a feasible option on a large scale basis in order to overcome
fluctuations in farm output. This has already been considered for the North Sea area251. The European
electrical grid map as produced by the Global Energy Network Institute (GENI252) has been used in the GIS.
Figure 42: European High Voltage Transmission Grid
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7.5.8
Uses of the Sea
The possible conflicts rising from the partial or total overlapping of different uses of the sea in the same
area has to be considered. In particular offshore renewable energy production can be seen as a “new” use
of the sea. Typical “traditional” uses of the sea are fishing and navigation254 however also include military
and materials dredging.
Considering Figure 43 to Figure 45, it can be seen that currently there are a large number of offshore
renewable projects in Europe existing and in the immediate future.
Figure 43: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Offshore Renewable Projects GIS Map (Source: RSE)
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Figure 44: North and Baltic Seas: Offshore Renewable Projects GIS Map (Source: RSE)
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Figure 45: Atlantic Ocean: Offshore Renewable Projects GIS Map (Source: RSE)
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7.6 Input Data
7.6.1
Calculation mask
Areas suitable for technical installation of offshore multipurpose platforms for energy production have
been found by combining information about wind technology sea depths and distance to shore in each
geographical region. Water depth less than 500m and distance to shore between 25 and 200 km have been
considered, as explained in section 7.5.1 and 7.5.2. Cells with no data value in the resource maps have also
been excluded.
7.6.2
Wind Resource Scenarios
Areas suitable for installation of offshore multipurpose platforms with wind energy were found by
combining the calculation mask with wind resource map. Two resource levels have been adopted:
Wind Resource Level
GIS Scenario
Wind Speed Range (m/s)
Level 2
V2
Greater than 8m/s (at 10m a.s.l.)
Level 1
V1
6-8m/s (at 10m a.s.l.)
Table 12: Annual Average Wind Speed Levels used in GIS
7.6.3
Wave Resource Scenarios
Areas suitable for installation of offshore multipurpose platforms with wave energy were found by
combining the calculation mask with the wave resource map. Three levels of annual average wave power
have been adopted:
Wave Resource Level
GIS Scenario
Wave Power Range (kW/m)
Level 3
W3
Greater than 25kW/m
Level 2
W2
15-25kW/m
Level 1
W1
5-15kW/m
Table 13: Annual Average Wave Power Levels used in GIS
7.6.4
Combined Resource Scenarios
Areas suitable for installation of offshore multipurpose platforms for energy production from combined
wind and wave resource were found by combining the calculation mask with information about both wind
and wave resource. For wind and wave combined resource, six scenarios have been considered:
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Level
GIS Scenario
Wind
Wave
Wind Velocity
(m/s)
Wind Resource
Level
Wave Power (kW/m)
Wave Resource
Level
Level 6
Scenario v2-w3
Greater than 8m/s
Level 2
Greater than 25kW/m
Level 3
Level 5
Scenario v2-w2
Greater than 8m/s
Level 2
15-25kW/m
Level 2
Level 4
Scenario v2-w1
Greater than 8m/s
Level 2
5-15kW/m
Level 1
Level 3
Scenario v1-w3
6-8m/s
Level 1
Greater than 25kW/m
Level 3
Level 2
Scenario v1-w2
6-8m/s
Level 1
15-25kW/m
Level 2
Level 1
Scenario v1_w1
6-8m/s
Level 1
5-15kW/m
Level 1
Table 14: Combined Offshore Renewable Resource: GIS Scenarios
Tidal information has also been added to the combined wind and wave scenarios. The individual tidal sites
are very small relative to the geographical region, therefore in order to make the areas more
distinguishable circles have been added around the tidal sites.
The maps, created with the GIS, for each region include:
Defined Region (total area included in the analysis as defined by ORECCA Project)
Calculation/Analysis Mask Area (i.e. including distance from shore and water depth limitations)
Sea depth
Distance from shore
Ports
Cities
MPA (Marine Protected Areas)
Existing offshore renewable power plants
Mean annual wind speed
Average annual wave power
Wind Resource Levels 1-2, as outlined above
Wave Resource Levels 1-3, as outlined above
Combined Wind + Wave Resource Scenarios (Levels 1-6), as outlined above.
The areas with wind & wave combined resources have been calculated for each class of water depth and
distance from shore. Calculated areas versus water depth and distance from shore are reported in Section 8
Data Analysis.
For all measurements of areas the WGS84 UTM32 coordinate reference system has been used.
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8
Data Analysis
The following section provides the result tables and analysis from the GIS tool scenarios.
Table 15 and Table 16 below give the sea surface area with a given resource level available in each region.
The “total available area” figure in Table 15 is the total area that falls within the limits of 25-200km from
shore and 0-500m water depth and is not the total sea surface area in a region.
It is evident that the Atlantic and the North Sea have the greatest available area which meets the depth and
distance to shore criteria.
The Atlantic has the greatest area available with the highest combined resource level (level 6), 72% of its
area is in this category. The region has 91% of its total area in the highest wave level (w3) and 76% in the
highest wind level (v2).
In comparison, all of the available area in the Mediterranean and Black Seas region has a low wave resource
(w1) and 93% of it has the lower wind resource (v1).
The North and Baltic Seas region has two-thirds of its area in the higher wind level (v2) however half of its
area is in the lowest wave level (w1).
Atlantic
SCENARIO
km
Total available area*
2
Med & Black Sea
(%)
km
2
North & Baltic Sea
(%)
km
2
(%)
566,561
100
200,253
100
599,721
100
Level 6
408,790
72
0
0
198,592
33
Level 5
16,326
3
0
0
75,602
13
Level 4
7,149
1
13,890
7
117,592
20
Level 3
108,509
19
0
0
15,663
3
Level 2
7,086
1
0
0
4,202
1
Level 1
18,701
3
186,363
93
188,070
31
*within distance from shore limits of 25 - 200 Km and water depth limit of less than 500m
Table 15: Available sea area for a combined resource level in each geographical region
Available Area (km2)
Atlantic
km2
Med & Black Sea
km2
(%)
North & Baltic
km2
(%)
(%)
WAVE
Level 3 (w3)
>25kW/m
517,301
91
0
0
214,254
36
Level 2 (w2)
15-25kW/m
23,413
4
0
0
79,804
13
Level 1 (w1)
5-15kW/m
25,850
5
200,254
100
305,661
51
WIND
Level 2 (v2)
>8m/s
432,266
76
13,890
7
391,786
65
Level 1 (v1)
6-8m/s
134,298
24
186,364
93
207,933
35
Table 16: Available sea area for each wave scenario and each wind scenario in each geographical region
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Table 17 below gives the percentage number of tidal sites which fall within given distances from shore for
each of the 3 geographical regions. It is evident that the majority of the tidal sites; 100% of Atlantic, 100%
of Med & Black Seas and 92% North and Baltic Seas; fall within 20km distance from shore and 83%, 94%
and 56%, respectively, fall within 10km from shore.
Distance from Shore
Atlantic
Med & Black Sea
North & Baltic
% Number of Tidal Sites
Less than 10km
83%
94%
56%
Less than 15km
11%
3%
20%
Less than 20km
6%
3%
16%
Less than 25km
0%
0%
4%
Less than 30km
0%
0%
4%
Table 17: Percentage of tidal sites falling within certain distances from shore
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8.1 North and Baltic Seas
The highest combined resource level (level 6) covers one third of the available area in the North and Baltic
Seas. This is concentrated in the North of the region off the coasts of Norway and Scotland. It is in this area
that the long fetch of the Atlantic has the greatest influence. Moving south in the region, the wave resource
decreases visibly (Figure 46) while the wind resource remains in the higher level for much of the region
with the exception of the sheltered eastern English coastline and the Baltic Sea.
Figure 46: North and Baltic Seas: Combined Wind and Wave Resource Map
The following table and graph give the sea areas in km2 available for all resource levels that fall within set
distance from shore and water depth ranges.
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Total North and Baltic Seas Region
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
Distance from Shore
60-200m
Area km
200-500m
Total
2
25-50km
22,394
44,477
47,802
16,773
131,446
50-100km
18,382
58,878
112,083
37,728
227,071
100-150km
4,111
39,796
64,628
34,561
143,096
150-200km
2,724
33,697
32,245
29,440
98,106
47,611
176,848
256,758
118,502
599,719
Total
Table 18: North and Baltic Seas: Summary of sea areas
North & Baltic Sea:
0-25
25-60
Sea Surface Area at a given water depth range
60-200
200-500
Sea Area (km 2 )
120000
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore Range (km)
150 - 200
Figure 47: North and Baltic Seas: Summary of available sea areas
The distance from shore range with the greatest available area is the 50-100km range with 227,071km2 or
38% of the total area. Likewise the water depth range 60-200m is the most commonly occurring with
256,758km2 or 43%. Only 47,611km2 or 8% of the total area is in the current offshore wind technology
water depth range of 0-25m. As this region has the largest number of offshore wind farms in the world, it is
likely that this area will soon become saturated. A much larger area of 176,848km2 is available in the
transition depth range of 25-60m however more than double this area (375,260km2) is available in the
floating depth range.
The following tables and graphs will give more insight into the water depth and distance from shore areas
available at given combined resource levels.
- 76 -
Resource Data and GIS Tool
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Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 1 - Wind: 6-8m/s, Wave: 5-15kW/m
The majority of the level 1 combined resource occurs in the Baltic Sea and East coast of England (see Figure
46) which represents 188,068km2 or 31% of the total available area in the region. It can be seen from Table
19 and Figure 48 below that within this Level 1 category the most frequently occurring water depths are 2560m and 60-200m and the distance from shore range of 50-100km.
The most frequently occurring combination of water depth and distance from shore is 60-200m at 50100km with 42,216km2 or 22% of the total Level 1 resource area.
RESOURCE LEVEL 1 – Wind Level 1 (6-8m/s) & Wave Level 1 (5-15kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
60-200m
200-500m
Total
Area km2
Distance from Shore
25-50km
6,650
24,671
9,724
3,258
44,303
50-100km
9,842
28,594
42,216
2,453
83,105
100-150km
2,762
15,923
25,167
423
44,275
150-200km
2,724
13,215
446
0
16,385
21,978
82,403
77,553
6,134
188,068
Total
Table 19: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 1 summary of sea areas
Sea Area (km 2 )
North & Baltic Sea: Resource Level 1
45000
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
Sea Surface Area at a given water depth range
25 - 50
0-25
60-200
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore Range (km)
Figure 48: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 1 summary of sea areas
- 77 -
25-60
200-500
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 2 - Wind: 6-8m/s, Wave: 15-25kW/m
Most of the Level 2 combined resource area available in this region falls in the 25-50km from shore
category and 25-60m water depth with 2,068km2 followed by 50-100km distance and 60-200m water depth
with 1,545km2.
It should be noted that the total area available at this resource level, 4,202km 2, is almost negligible in
comparison to the total area available in this region 599,721km2 and equates to 1% of the total area.
RESOURCE LEVEL 2 – Wind Level 1 (6-8m/s) & Wave Level 2 (15-25kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
Distance from Shore
60-200m
Area km
200-500m
Total
2
25-50km
0
2068
296
293
2,657
50-100km
0
0
1,545
0
1,545
100-150km
0
0
0
0
0
150-200km
0
0
0
0
0
Total
0
2,068
1,841
293
4,202
Table 20: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 2 summary of sea areas
Sea Area (km 2 )
2500
North & Baltic Sea: Resource Level 2
0-25
25-60
Sea Surface Area at a given water depth range
60-200
200-500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore Range (km)
Figure 49: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 2 summary of sea areas
- 78 -
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 3 - Wind: 6-8m/s, Wave: greater than 25kW/m
The level 3 combined resource is available in an area of 15,663km2 or 3% of the total area in the region.
Most of the available area has a water depth of 60-200m with 9,938km2 or 63% of the Level 3 available
area.
In this case the higher wave resource level appears to occur in the shorter distances from shore ranges
which have water depths of 60-200m and 200-500m.
This resource level is mainly concentrated in Northern Norway and northern coast of France where the
English Channel bounds the Atlantic Ocean (see Figure 46).
RESOURCE LEVEL 3 – Wind Level 1 (6-8m/s) & Wave Level 3 (greater than 25kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
Distance from Shore
60-200m
Area km
200-500m
Total
2
25-50km
0
0
5,471
2,979
8,450
50-100km
0
0
4,467
2,746
7,213
100-150km
0
0
0
0
0
150-200km
0
0
0
0
0
Total
0
0
9,938
5,725
15,663
Table 21: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 3 summary of sea areas
North & Baltic Sea: Resource Level 3
Sea Area (km 2 )
6000
Sea Surface Area at a given water depth range
0-25
60-200
25-60
200-500
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore Range (km)
Figure 50: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 3 summary of sea areas
- 79 -
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 4 - Wind: greater than 8m/s, Wave: 5-15kW/m
Level 4 indicates the lower wave resource and higher wind resource levels and represents 117,593km2 or
20% of the total area in the region. Based on Figure 46 above, it can be seen that this resource level
primarily occurs in the lower parts of the North Sea along the coasts of Denmark, Belgium, Germany and
the Netherlands.
It can be seen that the shallower water depths dominate as do the closer distances to shore with the most
frequently occurring water depth in the 25-60m range and distance from shore 50-100km.
This area is very suited to current offshore wind technologies in that there is minimum wave loading due to
the low resource and the water depth is suitable for these technologies. This is supported by the numerour
offshore wind farms in this area of the North Sea.
RESOURCE LEVEL 4 – Wind Level 2 (greater than 8m/s) & Wave Level 1 (5-15kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
Distance from Shore
60-200m
Area km
200-500m
Total
2
25-50km
15,099
17,009
4,213
416
36,737
50-100km
8,540
27,715
9,042
828
46,125
100-150km
1,349
17,556
5,253
0
24,158
150-200km
0
5,767
4,806
0
10,573
24,988
68,047
23,314
1,244
117,593
Total
Table 22: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 4 summary of sea areas
North & Baltic Sea: Resource Level 4
0-25
25-60
Sea Surface Area at a given water depth range
60-200
200-500
Sea Area (km 2 )
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore Range (km)
Figure 51: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 4 summary of sea areas
- 80 -
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 5 - Wind: greater than 8m/s, Wave: 15-25kW/m
The Level 5 primarily occurs in as a gradation between the high Level 6 combined resource in the north and
the much reduced wave resource in the south. It represents 13% of the total area or 75,602km 2 and the
primary water depth range is 60-200m.
The distribution of this resource level shows that the shallower water depths occur offshore while the
deeper water depths are occurring close to shore, seen in Figure 52 below.
RESOURCE LEVEL 5 – Wind Level 2 (greater than 8m/s) & Wave Level 2 (15-25kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
Distance from Shore
60-200m
Area km
200-500m
Total
2
25-50km
0
0
4,052
5,312
9,364
50-100km
0
843
17,758
4,033
22,634
100-150km
0
5,943
12,049
0
17,992
150-200km
0
14,715
10,897
0
25,612
Total
0
21,501
44,756
9,345
75,602
Table 23: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 5 summary of sea areas
North & Baltic Sea: Resource Level 5
0-25
25-60
Sea Surface Area at a given water depth range
60-200
200-500
Sea Area (km 2 )
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore Range (km)
Figure 52: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 5 summary of sea areas
- 81 -
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 6 - Wind: greater than 8m/s, Wave: greater than 25kW/m
This area, with level 6 combined resource, accounts for one third of the available area in the region or
198,591km2. It occurs solely in the north of the region between the coasts of Scotland and Norway. As is to
be expected with this location, the deeper water depths are the most present with the 60-200m and 200500m ranges providing 99,356km2 and 95,761km2 respectively which equates to 98% of the total Level 6
area.
RESOURCE LEVEL 6 – Wind Level 2 (greater than 8m/s) & Wave Level 3 (greater than 25kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
Distance from Shore
25-50km
60-200m
Area km
200-500m
Total
2
645
729
24,046
4,515
29,935
50-100km
0
1,726
37,055
27,668
66,449
100-150km
0
374
22,159
34,138
56,671
150-200km
0
0
16,096
29,440
45,536
645
2,829
99,356
95,761
198,591
Total
Sea Area (km 2 )
Table 24: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 6 summary of sea areas
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 6
0-25
25-60
Sea Surface Area at a given water depth range
60-200
200-500
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore Range (km)
Figure 53: North and Baltic Seas: Resource Level 6 summary of sea areas
- 82 -
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
8.2 Atlantic Ocean
The whole Atlantic coastline has a minimum wave power of 25kW/m with the higher wind resource level in
the north of the region and the lower in the south. The sheltered Irish Sea and southern Spain are the only
areas with a low wave resource.
Therefore in terms of site selection there are numerous potential combined sites based on simply resource.
It is evident from the calculation mask area that there are shallower waters available in the north of the
region while the coasts of Spain and Portugal have water depths greater than 500m close to shore.
Figure 54: Atlantic Ocean: Combined Wind and Wave Resource Map
The following table and graph give the sea areas in km2 available for all resource levels that fall within set
distance from shore and water depth ranges.
- 83 -
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
It is evident from Table 25 that most of the available area in the region is in the 60-200m water depth range
with 365,110km2 or 64% of the total area. This implies that the most suitable technology for this region will
be floating as only 3% of the area is within the 0-60m water depth range. With regards distance from shore,
the area is quite evenly distributed between 25km and 150km from shore, with 198,262km 2 within 50100km from shore.
Total Atlantic Ocean Region
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
60-200m
200-500m
Total
Area km2
Distance from Shore
25-50km
1,910
9,807
97,808
24,129
133,654
50-100km
1,467
1,101
136,892
58,802
198,262
100-150km
538
0
83,267
55,208
139,013
150-200km
0
0
47,143
48,492
95,635
3,915
10,908
365,110
186,631
566,564
Total
Sea Area (km 2 )
Table 25: Atlantic Ocean: Summary of sea areas
160000
140000
120000
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
Atlantic Ocean:
Sea surface area at a given water depth range
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore (km)
0-25
60-200
25-60
200-500
150 - 200
Figure 55: Atlantic Ocean: Summary of available sea areas
The following tables and graphs will give more insight into the water depth and distance from shore areas
available at given combined resource levels.
- 84 -
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 1 - Wind: 6-8m/s, Wave: 5-15kW/m
The Level 1 combined resource accounts for 3% of the Atlantic region with 18,701km 2; 11,270km2 of this is
in the 25-60m water depth. Based on Figure 54 above it is evident that much of this area is in the Irish Sea
rather than the Atlantic seaboard.
RESOURCE LEVEL 1 – Wind Level 1 (6-8m/s) & Wave Level 1 (5-15kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
200-500m
Total
Area km2
Distance from Shore
25-50km
60-200m
480
2,376
6,947
1,306
11,109
50-100km
0
0
4,323
3,269
7,592
100-150km
0
0
0
0
0
150-200km
0
0
0
0
0
480
2,376
11,270
4,575
18,701
Total
Sea Area (km 2 )
Table 26: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 1 summary of sea areas
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 1
0-25
Sea surface area at a given water depth range 60-200
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore (km)
Figure 56: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 1 summary of sea areas
- 85 -
25-60
200-500
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 2 - Wind: 6-8m/s, Wave: 15-25kW/m
The level 2 resource, much like the level 1 resource above, is primarily concentrated in the sheltered Irish
Sea area and southern Spain. It contributes 7,087km2 or 1% of the total combined resource area in the
region. The majority of this falls within the 200-500m water depth range and is evenly distributed between
the 25-50km and 50-100km distance from shore ranges.
RESOURCE LEVEL 2 – Wind Level 1 (6-8m/s) & Wave Level 2 (15-25kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
60-200m
200-500m
Total
Area km2
Distance from Shore
25-50km
0
1,642
657
1,306
3,605
50-100km
0
553
0
2,929
3,482
100-150km
0
0
0
0
0
150-200km
0
0
0
0
0
0
2,195
657
4,235
7,087
Total
Sea Area (km 2 )
Table 27: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 2 summary of sea areas
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 2
Sea surface area at a given water depth range
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore (km)
Figure 57: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 2 summary of sea areas
- 86 -
0-25
60-200
25-60
200-500
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 3 - Wind: 6-8m/s, Wave: greater than 25kW/m
The Atlantic coasts of France, Spain and Portugal have primarily a Level 3 combined resource level,
indicating a lower wind speed level and the highest wave power level. It accounts for 19% (108,510 km 2) of
the total combined resource area in the region. Of this, 65% (70,874km2) falls within the 60-200m water
depth range which is relatively evenly distributed amongst the 25-50km and 50-100km distances from
shore. This is to be expected, as the bathymetry is particularly deep along the Spanish and Portuguese
coastline and relatively deep waters occur close to shore. It is likely that the 24,584km 2 and 12,273km2
available in the 100-150km and 150-200km distances from shore zones respectively, are located primarily
off the coast of France.
RESOURCE LEVEL 3 – Wind Level 1 (6-8m/s) & Wave Level 3 (greater than 25kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
60-200m
200-500m
Total
Area km2
Distance from Shore
25-50km
539
2,720
20,383
10,729
34,371
50-100km
547
548
24,780
11,407
37,282
100-150km
538
0
16,382
7,664
24,584
150-200km
0
0
9,329
2,944
12,273
1,624
3,268
70,874
32,744
108,510
Total
Table 28: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 3 summary of sea areas
Sea Area (km 2 )
30000
Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 3
Sea surface area at a given water depth range
0-25
60-200
25-60
200-500
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore (km)
Figure 58: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 3 summary of sea areas
- 87 -
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 4 - Wind: greater than 8m/s, Wave: 5-15kW/m
The level 4 combined resource contributes 1% of the total combined resource area in the Atlantic region.
As with Level 1 and 2 this is a low wave resource level and as such is concentrated in the sheltered area of
the Irish Sea.
All of this area is in the 25-200m water depth range and 25-100kms from shore with more than 80% in the
25-50km zone or 60-200m water depth.
RESOURCE LEVEL 4 – Wind Level 2 (greater than 8m/s) & Wave Level 1 (5-15kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
Distance from Shore
60-200m
Area km
200-500m
Total
2
25-50km
0
1,423
4,765
0
6,188
50-100km
0
0
961
0
961
100-150km
0
0
0
0
0
150-200km
0
0
0
0
0
0
1,423
5,726
0
7,149
Total
Table 29: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 4 summary of sea areas
Sea Area (km 2 )
6000
Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 4
Sea surface area at a given water depth range
0-25
60-200
25-60
200-500
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore (km)
Figure 59: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 4 summary of sea areas
- 88 -
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 5 - Wind: greater than 8m/s, Wave: 15-25kW/m
All of the level 5 resource is in the 60-200m water depth and within 100kms from shore. It is located in
southern Ireland and England where the greater resource in the Atlantic meets the low resource of the Irish
Sea. It accounts for 3% of the total resource.
RESOURCE LEVEL 5 – Wind Level 2 (greater than 8m/s) & Wave Level 2 (15-25kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
60-200m
200-500m
Total
Area km2
Distance from Shore
25-50km
0
0
7,960
0
7,960
50-100km
0
0
8,366
0
8,366
100-150km
0
0
0
0
0
150-200km
0
0
0
0
0
Total
0
0
16,326
0
16,326
Sea Area (km 2 )
Table 30: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 5 summary of sea areas
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 5
0-25
Sea surface area at a given water depth range 60-200
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore (km)
Figure 60: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 5 summary of sea areas
- 89 -
25-60
200-500
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 6 - Wind: greater than 8m/s, Wave: greater than 25kW/m
The area with a combined resource level 6, accounts for 72% of the available area in the region, or a total of
408,791km2. It is found in the Northern part of the region around the Atlantic coasts of Ireland, Northern
Ireland, Scotland and southern England. The bathymetry here is less than 500m at greater than 200km from
shore due to the continental shelf. Therefore in this part of the region the area is likely to be restricted by
the distance from shore limit rather than the water depth limit as in the south of the region.
Up to 99% of the available level 6 area is in greater than 60m water depth indicating that for this region,
floating combined technologies will be necessary to harness the full potential of the wind and wave
resource.
RESOURCE LEVEL 6 – Wind Level 2 (greater than 8m/s) & Wave Level 3 (greater than 25kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
60-200m
200-500m
Total
Area km2
Distance from Shore
25-50km
891
1,646
57,096
10,788
70,421
50-100km
920
0
98,462
41,197
140,579
100-150km
0
0
66,885
47,544
114,429
150-200km
0
0
37,814
45,548
83,362
1,811
1,646
260,257
145,077
408,791
Total
Table 31: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 6 summary of sea areas
120000
Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 6
Sea surface area at a given water depth range
0-25
60-200
25-60
200-500
Sea Area (km 2 )
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore (km)
Figure 61: Atlantic Ocean: Resource Level 6 summary of sea areas
- 90 -
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
8.3 Mediterranean and Black Seas
Due to the water depth of the Mediterranean and Black sea basins, the calculation mask is much less than
the actual sea surface area of the region due to the 500m maximum water depth limitation. The area is
then further reduced to 200,253km2 when the caveat is applied that there must be both a wind resource
and a minimum wave resource of 5kW/m. This is less than half the area of the other 2 regions which also
have a greater wave resource.
As a sheltered sea of small fetch, there is generally a very low or no wave resource in the region. Therefore
the combined resource levels in this region are confined to Level 1 or Level 4 which have the 5-15kW/m
wave resource.
Figure 62: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Combined Wind and Wave Resource Map
The following tables and graphs will give more insight into the water depth and distance from shore areas
available at given combined resource levels.
- 91 -
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
It can be seen in Table 32 and Figure 63 below that a large proportion (94%) of the available area is in
waters deeper than 60m. Similar to the Atlantic region, it is likely that floating technologies will be required
to harness offshore renewable energy in this region.
The available area with a combined resource is evenly distributed between 25-50km and 50-100km
however as to be expected in a region with very deep water the area available reduces significantly with
distances greater than 100km from shore.
Total Mediterranean and Black Seas Region
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
Distance from Shore
25-50km
60-200m
Area km
200-500m
Total
2
0
4,010
27,666
36,393
68,069
634
4,442
20,653
39,700
65,429
100-150km
0
2,536
9,527
27,239
39,302
150-200km
0
633
10,817
16,004
27,454
634
11,621
68,663
119,336
200,254
50-100km
Total
Table 32: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Summary of sea areas
Sea Area (km 2 )
Mediterranean and Black Seas:
Sea surface area at a given water depth range
45000
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
25 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore )km)
Figure 63: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Summary of available sea areas
- 92 -
0-25
60-200
25-60
200-500
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 1 - Wind: 6-8m/s, Wave: 5-15kW/m
As evident in Figure 62 above, the level 1 resource is primarily located on the southern side of the basin
around the African coastline and the coast of Sicily. The level 1 resource is the dominant level in this region
with 93% of the sea surface area or 186,363km2; 60% of this is in water depth of 200-500m and 65% is
within 100km from shore.
RESOURCE LEVEL 1 – Wind Level 1 (6-8m/s) & Wave Level 1 (5-15kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
200-500m
Total
Area km2
Distance from Shore
25-50km
60-200m
0
4,010
24,136
32,662
60,808
634
4,442
17,683
37,299
60,058
100-150km
0
2,536
9,527
27,239
39,302
150-200km
0
633
10,187
15,376
26,196
634
11,621
61,533
112,576
186,364
50-100km
Total
Table 33: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Resource Level 1 summary of sea areas
Sea Area (km 2 )
Mediterranean and Black Seas: Resource Level 1
Sea surface area at a given water depth range
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
25 - 50
0-25
60-200
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore (km)
Figure 64: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Resource Level 1 summary of sea areas
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25-60
200-500
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
LEVEL 4 - Wind: greater than 8m/s, Wave: 5-15kW/m
Level 4 indicates the higher wind resource level of greater than 8m/s combined with the lower wave
resource. It represents 7% of the available combined resource area in the Mediterranean and Black Seas
region and is centred in 2 primary locations; the south coast of France and the east coast of Greece in the
Aegean Sea.
All of this resource level is in water depths greater than 60m and the majority (91%) is within 100km from
shore.
RESOURCE LEVEL 4 – Wind Level 2 (greater than 8m/s) & Wave Level 1 (5-15kW/m)
Water Depth
0-25m
25-60m
60-200m
200-500m
Total
Area km2
Distance from Shore
25-50km
0
0
3,530
3,731
7,261
50-100km
0
0
2,970
2,401
5,371
100-150km
0
0
0
0
0
150-200km
0
0
630
628
1,258
0
0
7,130
6,760
13,890
Total
Table 34: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Resource Level 4 summary of sea areas
Sea Area (km 2 )
Mediterranean and Black Seas: Resource Level 4
Sea surface area at a given water depth range
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
25 - 50
0-25
60-200
50 - 100
100 - 150
Distance from Shore )km)
Figure 65: Mediterranean and Black Seas: Resource Level 4 summary of sea areas
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25-60
200-500
150 - 200
Resource Data and GIS Tool
for Offshore Renewable Energy Projects in Europe
Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
9
Conclusions
The GIS tool used in the ORECCA project used primarily OCEANOR wave resource data and Quikscat wind
resource data. The resolution of this data is 25km x 25km grid and therefore it should be noted that it is not
of suitable resolution to support a commercial site selection decision and is not well resolved close to
shore.
The resource scenarios used in the GIS tool are designed to highlight the regions with the highest resource
in order to target the areas with the greatest suitability to combined offshore renewable projects. It is
important not to disregard the other areas as some technologies may be specifically suited to or designed
for the more benign resource climate. However the areas highlighted by this document are capable of
providing the most significant contribution from combined offshore renewable energy.
The analysis of the results from the GIS queries clearly emphasise the great potential in each of the 3
regions for floating combined technologies for wind and wave energy with 98% of the North Sea level 6
resource and 99% of the Atlantic level 6 resource in 60-500m water depth within a reasonable distance
from shore (less than 200km). The Mediterranean region too will benefit from floating technologies to
harness its wind resource in deeper waters.
It is evident from the analysis that the North and Baltic Seas and the Atlantic Ocean regions have a far
greater potential for combined offshore wind and wave technologies. A key recommendation for these
regions is the development of local and national grid in the west of Ireland, Scotland and Norway.
The Mediterranean and Black Seas, being almost enclosed basins, have much lower wave resource however
it is possible that this low resource could be a benefit for scaled test sites or for the less robust,
technologies. The low resolution of the GIS data close to shore also means that it is possible that the
nearshore wave resource in this region may be suitable for onshore or nearshore wave technologies
however further studies would need to be carried out to determine this.
Tidal sites are primarily in northern Europe with a few sites also in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, are
very specifically located due to the nature of the resource but the potential for energy production can be
quite high. This document has not produced a resource assessment for these sites and has simply
considered all sites with greater than 1.75m/s current equally suitable. It is recommended that a European
wide tidal current resource assessment and atlas is produced in order to fully assess the potential for
combined wind and tidal current projects in Europe. Many tidal sites also have a high wind resource and
thus there is a potential for combined tidal current and wind resource projects. A likely issue with
combined wind and tidal is the proximity of these tidal sites to shore which may raise planning and visibility
issues. A typical planning restriction on distance from shore for offshore wind farms is 20km and it is
evident from the analysis in section 8 that the majority of the tidal sites (100% of Atlantic, 100% of Med &
Black Seas and 92% North and Baltic Seas) fall within this distance from shore. It is therefore evident that
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Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
the combination of offshore wind and tidal current may not have a high potential for development as long
as this constraint is in place. It should be noted however that tidal current technologies alone do not tend
to pose a threat to seascape and this type of planning restriction should not apply. Thus it is also
recommended that European guidelines are produced to address issues in relation to wind developments
within 20km of the coastline
Finally the study showed that all regions require more collaboration to produce regional resource atlases,
marine spatial planning maps and catalogue of available data for the region.
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Results of the FP7 ORECCA Project Work Package 2
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