An integrated GIS approach for site selection of floating offshore wind farms in the Atlantic continental European coastline

H. Díaz and C. Guedes Soares

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2020, vol. 134, issue C

Abstract: This study presents a novel method for the selection of sites for floating wind farms based on marine spatial optimization. After providing a review of the present state of the art, a tool based on geographic information systems is presented, consisting of three main stages and built in Python language. The first stage collects and analyses the information of the different regulatory bodies, marine spatial planning, maritime concessions and other sources. The second stage excludes not feasible sites for floating wind farms, based mostly on marine space use and on environmental constraints. The third stage characterises the available locations based on five major categories that are spatially dependent: metocean data, viability data, logistics, facilities, marine environment and techno-economic data. The proposed methodology is implemented at the Europe Atlantic coast, with specific reference to Portugal, Spain and France. These three countries together combine 3.362.408 km2 of the Atlantic Exclusive Economic Zone, where in only 0.22% of that area could host floating offshore wind turbines. While further detailed studies about locations and legislative considerations are required, the effort made has contributed to eliminate unsuitable areas and identify those where sustainability can be maximized.

Keywords: Evaluation criteria; Exclusion criteria; Floating wind farm; Geographical information system (GIS); Marine renewable energy; Site selection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136403212030616X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:134:y:2020:i:c:s136403212030616x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2020.110328

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().