Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BLUE-X (BLUE ENERGY OFFSHORE INSTALLATION ACCELERATOR)
Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2025-02-28
Key principles of the Green Deal are to prioritise energy efficiency, develop a power sector based largely on renewable resources, to secure an affordable EU energy supply and to have a fully integrated, interconnected digitalised EU energy market. However, renewable energy scale up in Europe faces increasing resistance due to limitations in applicable land area and the willingness of local communities to have wind or solar parks close by. One possibility to resolve this issue is the usage of offshore space. Blue renewable energy sources such as offshore (floating) wind, floating solar (FPV), waves, tides and currents have a high and still unused potential to be explored. This is of particular importance in view of the current energy crisis and changing energy policy. For all offshore technologies, lengthy and expensive MetOcean, geophysical and environmental campaigns are needed, which slow down the upscaling of offshore renewables. The proposed Blue Energy Offshore Installation Accelerator (BLUE-X) will contribute to the Green Deal objectives and its related policies, in particular with regard to increasing the EU’s climate ambition for 2030 and 2050, supplying clean, affordable and secure energy, mitigating natural hazards and preserving and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity. BLUE-X is an innovative Copernicus based solution for optimising and accelerating decision making for blue renewable energy projects in all phases, from planning to construction, operation and decommissioning. The heart of this solution is a cloud-based IT network of relevant Earth observation and MetOcean data streams that are combined in decision support tools for each phase. As a result, the planning and construction phase can be significantly optimised, thereby reducing costs, and required time to full operation. BLUE-X will be available and showcased for all key offshore energy domains for some of the most important European offshore projects to date but can be applied anywhere.
Objectives
The technical objective of the project is to generate an as-automatic-as-possible and accurate self-service platform to combine existing and novel data streams, mainly EO based, relevant for the Blue Energy sector for all types of energy production and the five phases of a renewable offshore energy project life. Starting from regional site suitability, detailed site planning, facility construction, daily operation all the way to effective decommissioning, different data streams are utilised and thus support the increasingly complex decision-making requirements. This process will be embedded in an online software solution allowing blue energy stakeholders in Europe and beyond to perform their relevant analysis and obtain ready to use products / results without any detailed pre-knowledge of EO. The business objective is to generate revenue by licensing the software and relevant consulting services to governmental and private entities such as offshore project developers, grid operators and energy utility companies. Different levels of detail provided in the form of variable commercial offerings will attract users from a range of levels of interest. It will establish a new and economically sustainable service based on Copernicus satellite data and services showcasing European expertise for the renewable offshore energy market. The social objective is to generate improved knowledge for offshore renewable energy construction, supporting a better understanding and smarter, more effective management. Operating in the sensitive and ecologically valuable coastal zone can – amongst others – impact wildlife, fishery, tourism and coastal erosion, hence ongoing monitoring and baseline assessments are essential and very well suited to EO. The following specific objectives and key results (OKR) provide a more detailed level of information with respect to the call and its Key Strategic Orientations (KSO). In order to make the objectives tangible and easily measurable, they are associated with major technology related (T) and service related (S) Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
Objective 1 (OKR 1): Easy access to reliable satellite-based measurements for Blue renewable energy applications with Copernicus data being a core dataset
Objective 2 (OKR 2): Managing sustainably the European marine energy resources using digital solutions
Objective 3 (OKR 3): Empowering the European industry and society via participation in the blue offshore energy evolution through dedicated capacity building activities
Objectives
The technical objective of the project is to generate an as-automatic-as-possible and accurate self-service platform to combine existing and novel data streams, mainly EO based, relevant for the Blue Energy sector for all types of energy production and the five phases of a renewable offshore energy project life. Starting from regional site suitability, detailed site planning, facility construction, daily operation all the way to effective decommissioning, different data streams are utilised and thus support the increasingly complex decision-making requirements. This process will be embedded in an online software solution allowing blue energy stakeholders in Europe and beyond to perform their relevant analysis and obtain ready to use products / results without any detailed pre-knowledge of EO. The business objective is to generate revenue by licensing the software and relevant consulting services to governmental and private entities such as offshore project developers, grid operators and energy utility companies. Different levels of detail provided in the form of variable commercial offerings will attract users from a range of levels of interest. It will establish a new and economically sustainable service based on Copernicus satellite data and services showcasing European expertise for the renewable offshore energy market. The social objective is to generate improved knowledge for offshore renewable energy construction, supporting a better understanding and smarter, more effective management. Operating in the sensitive and ecologically valuable coastal zone can – amongst others – impact wildlife, fishery, tourism and coastal erosion, hence ongoing monitoring and baseline assessments are essential and very well suited to EO. The following specific objectives and key results (OKR) provide a more detailed level of information with respect to the call and its Key Strategic Orientations (KSO). In order to make the objectives tangible and easily measurable, they are associated with major technology related (T) and service related (S) Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
Objective 1 (OKR 1): Easy access to reliable satellite-based measurements for Blue renewable energy applications with Copernicus data being a core dataset
Objective 2 (OKR 2): Managing sustainably the European marine energy resources using digital solutions
Objective 3 (OKR 3): Empowering the European industry and society via participation in the blue offshore energy evolution through dedicated capacity building activities
The project progressed well during the first part of the project. During the first part of the project we focused on the market analyses and optimizing the business plan. Further activities were related to the definition of user needs and requirements of the international Blue Energy stakeholder community. Based on the definition of the functional and technical service requirements the activities of the first project phase were to design a so called decision support tool (DST), which gives endusers an effective tool during all stages from site assessment to decommission.
Several workshops and presentations were conducted. Marketing efforts including LinkedIn presence contributed to the project's impact.
Several workshops and presentations were conducted. Marketing efforts including LinkedIn presence contributed to the project's impact.
Integrated satellite data analysis will bring the following parameters/services beyond the current state of the art for BLUE-X:
● New sea state parameters beyond Copernicus Marine: Coastal wind and wave measurements based on Sentinel-1 in high resolution, using most recent science, which increases the level of detail on local wind and wave fields. Technology demonstrated by German Aerospace Center (DLR) Department SAR Signal Processing and currently provided through a technological transfer program to EOMAP.
● Optical Sentinel-2 and VHR satellite data for better wave characterisation.
● Shallow water bathymetric data derived from satellite data can serve as valuable input to improve SWAN models which are significantly depending on quality of the - often insufficiently known - shallow water depth data;
● High resolution offshore irradiation/illumination data based on EOMAPs modelled irradiation, atmospheric optical thickness, and cloud coverage data for average conditions (monthly, yearly).
● Proxies for fish and marine mammal populations through identification of increased phytoplankton (Chlorophyll) availability. Furthermore, impact assessment of marine environment and economics (fisheries) based on satellite-derived turbidity, total suspended matter (very high to high resolution) and temperature (high resolution).
● Very high spatial and temporal resolution oil spill detection and other pollution (e.g. leaks from drilling and construction campaigns).
● Very high-resolution bathymetry and seafloor habitat classifications in optically shallow water environments targeted to the blue energy sector
● New sea state parameters beyond Copernicus Marine: Coastal wind and wave measurements based on Sentinel-1 in high resolution, using most recent science, which increases the level of detail on local wind and wave fields. Technology demonstrated by German Aerospace Center (DLR) Department SAR Signal Processing and currently provided through a technological transfer program to EOMAP.
● Optical Sentinel-2 and VHR satellite data for better wave characterisation.
● Shallow water bathymetric data derived from satellite data can serve as valuable input to improve SWAN models which are significantly depending on quality of the - often insufficiently known - shallow water depth data;
● High resolution offshore irradiation/illumination data based on EOMAPs modelled irradiation, atmospheric optical thickness, and cloud coverage data for average conditions (monthly, yearly).
● Proxies for fish and marine mammal populations through identification of increased phytoplankton (Chlorophyll) availability. Furthermore, impact assessment of marine environment and economics (fisheries) based on satellite-derived turbidity, total suspended matter (very high to high resolution) and temperature (high resolution).
● Very high spatial and temporal resolution oil spill detection and other pollution (e.g. leaks from drilling and construction campaigns).
● Very high-resolution bathymetry and seafloor habitat classifications in optically shallow water environments targeted to the blue energy sector