Study identifies 'huge' offshore potential

摘要

In 2010, a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) was undertaken of a draft offshore renewable energy development plan (OREDP) which outlined a number of marine renewable energy development scenarios to inform policy decisions as this new industry develops. This assessment required one of the largest GIS data gathering exercises on our marine environment to date and now provides an estimate of the total electricity generating potential of this resource. Given the evolving nature of offshore wind, wave and tidal energy technologies, and the above-mentioned geographic scale of the study area, this was a mammoth task. To begin to make it more manageable, the study area was broken into six assessment areas based on resource availability. The draft OREDP sets out a high scenario of 4,500MW of offshore wind by 2030.