Abstract
The present report describes the process undertaken during the development of a model for the identification of suitable areas for the development of wave energy projects in the European Atlantic in the context of maritime spatial planning and its implementation into a web-based Decision Support Tool.
The approach implemented is based on the previous work developed by Galparsoro et al. (2020) in the framework of WESE project (Wave Energy in Southern Europe; Project funded by the European Commission. Agreement number EASME/EMFF/2017/1.2.1.1/02/SI2.787640). The scope of such project was the development of a model and a decision support tool for the identification of the most suitable areas for the development and deploying of wave energy projects in the Portuguese and Spanish Atlantic area. As the objective of SafeWAVE is equivalent to that of the WESE project, the same approach was adopted, but modifications, adaptations and improvements were applied to fit with the objectives of SafeWAVE. In addition, the adaptation and improvement of the model was enriched by the consultation and discussion with WEC industrial developers and scientists. The objective of the workshop was to share and discuss the approach and assumptions made during the development and operationalisation of the site suitability model. The main focus was put on the structure and technical factors considered within the model. There was a general agreement on that the main factors were already considered but additional feedback was obtained in relation to information sources and the way such factors could be integrated into the model. In particular, regarding the wave energy resource and the estimation of the production capacity, the oceanographic conditions for construction and maintenance of the devices, the calculation of the levelized cost of energy (LCOE), as well as the other aspects related to the deployment of the farms such as depth, slope, seafloor type, distance to substation and distance to port.
The conceptual model was then operationalized in a Bayesian Network. The spatial data to feed the model were obtained from different publicly available datasets. The geographical scope of the model is the European Atlantic region which covers the EEZs of Ireland, the UK, France, Spain and Portugal. Accounting for a total area of 3,676,970 km2.
The model developed was implemented into a web-based decision support tool called VAPEM (https://aztidata.es/vapem/) and which was previously described by Galparsoro et al. (2020).
The model presented here is still subjected to modifications and improvements. Preliminary results of the suitable areas for development of WEC farms will be contrasted with WEC developers and scientists to reach a consensus and a final model that will be used to produce the final suitability maps under Task 6.3.