Tools for Ocean Energy Maritime Spatial Planning

Abstract

Offshore wind power has been in recent years a highly debated topic and subject to investigation by the several players in the renewable energy sector. The advantages of this form of renewable energy are well known being some of the most important aspects the large wind resource and available area for wind farms’ installation. Nevertheless, the planning of an offshore wind energy project needs to be addressed carefully so as not to interfere with other economic activities or sensitive environmentally protected areas, among other constraints. Similarly, although the offshore wind resource is naturally higher than the resource onshore, the investment costs (including operation and maintenance) are also considerably higher, hence the need to establish straightforward and transparent methodologies for offshore wind planning. Most of the methodologies used for planning purposes are based on geographic information systems (GIS) due to its powerful capabilities in managing, formatting and modelling large amounts of georeferenced data usually involved in planning procedures. This chapter presents a methodology for offshore wind energy planning taking into consideration the several aspects of sea use and the main restrictions which can be relevant for wind farm installation. The methodology consists on the use of a GIS to manage the required information (resource and restrictions maps) and to develop a set of tools that enable the user to add, modify and model the information according to his objectives.