Seven European partners gather to develop decision support tool for offshore renewables

Seven European partners have teamed up for a project that will see the development of a satellite-based decision support tool to accelerate offshore renewable energy deployments.

For upscaling offshore renewables, BLUE-X is set to deliver key data helpful for all five steps of the blue energy lifecycle: site assessment, planning, construction, operations, and decommissioning. 

The consortium comprises the Dutch Marine Energy Centre (DMEC, The Netherlands), EOMAP (Germany), Fórum Oceano (Portugal), INESC TEC (Portugal), Inyanga Marine Energy Group (France/UK), Politecnico di Torino (Italy) and Wave for Energy (Italy).

“Increasing the share of blue energy is a key building block for reaching the goals of the Green Deal. Scaling up the use of Copernicus satellite data can support the rapid and fact-based decision-making needed,” said Fiammetta Diani, Head of Market Downstream and Innovation at EUSPA.

Six use cases across Europe are set to provide a BLUE-X solution aligned with the user demands of offshore renewable energy developers and providers. These cases are said to encompass diverse blue offshore energy sources.

“Our mission is to give valuable decision-support to offshore renewable energy projects. We aim for a tool that is easy to use and offers quick access to key data on the coastal areas in question,” said Kim Knauer of EOMAP, leading the BLUE-X consortium. 

This is the first blue energy Horizon Europe project funded by the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA). 

Over 75% of the European Union’s greenhouse gas emissions stem from the energy sector. The updated ‘Renewable Energy Directive‘ of 2023 raises the binding target to double the share of renewables within the EU by 2030.

In 2020, the European Commission established goals of 300 GW of offshore wind and 40 GW of ocean energy across all of the European Union’s sea basins by 2050. Yet, meeting these targets requires extensive and time-consuming MetOcean, geophysical, and environmental campaigns, said EOMAP.