Greening offshore wind with the Smart Wind Chart evaluation tool

Chara Kyriakidou,Paraskevi Drakopoulou,Sofia Reizopoulou,Evangelos Voukouvalas,Panagiotis Axaopoulos,Anastasios Papadopoulos,Francesco De Leo,Simona Fraschetti,Federica Foglini,Evangelos Papathanassiou,Laura Bray,Ferdinando Boero,Flora Karathanasi,Takvor Soukissian

doi:10.5194/we-16-73-2016

Abstract

Abstract. The development of offshore wind farms (OWFs) and the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) comprise two main elements for the production of clean energy, and the simultaneous maintenance and protection of biodiversity in the Mediterranean and Black seas. Successful, efficient, and sustainable coupling of these two aspects presumes that the criteria for selecting suitable locations for the deployment of OWFs should not only include technical-engineering terms (e.g. high wind energy efficiency, bottom suitability, inland infrastructures) but also ecological–environmental considerations (e.g. the least possible impact on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning) and socio-economic aspects (e.g. effects on coastal and marine activities, development of marine spatial planning). In the context of the FP7 CoCoNet project, the integration between OWFs and MPAs is based on four main steps: (i) the identification of existing (networks of) MPAs focusing on the biodiversity distribution patterns and current legislation, (ii) the coupling of offshore wind potential within networks of MPAs, (iii) the evaluation of the knowledge gained up to date and the theoretical approaches at the two pilot sites of the Mediterranean and Black sea basins, and (iv) the development of the "Smart Wind Chart", a convenient and rational tool addressed to scientists and policy makers for the evaluation of maritime policy management schemes. The latter step comprises the core of this work.

Highlights

The exploitation of wind energy has long been recognized as a key element in the common EU energy policy in order to reduce the dependence on fossil fuel and emissions from carbon sources, to decouple energy costs from oil prices, and to ensure a secure energy supply
Let us reiterate that the overall score of the candidate areas for offshore wind farms (OWFs) development are obtained by applying a linear weighting scheme
An integrated and interdisciplinary approach has been adopted integrating technical, and environmental criteria and data related to the offshore wind energy exploitation

Summary

Introduction

The exploitation of wind energy has long been recognized as a key element in the common EU energy policy in order to reduce the dependence on fossil fuel and emissions from carbon sources, to decouple energy costs from oil prices, and to ensure a secure energy supply. Onshore wind energy generation is currently cheaper than offshore, finding new suitable onshore sites is becoming increasingly difficult in Europe. Offshore wind energy (OWE) is an attractive alternative solution to take advantage of marine winds, which tend to be higher, more frequent, and less variable than inland winds. Despite the tremendous development of offshore wind farms (OWFs) in the northern European countries, with more than half of the installed offshore capacity belonging to Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Ecological Federation (EEF). T. Soukissian et al.: Greening offshore wind with the Smart Wind Chart evaluation tool the UK, no full-scale OWFs have been developed yet in the Mediterranean and Black seas

Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion