Pentland Firth, Orkney Waters Enhanced Description Added to Atlas of UK Marine Renewable Energy Resources

Following completion of a detailed hydrodynamic modelling study commissioned by The Crown Estate, ABP Marine Environmental Research Ltd (ABPmer) has added a down-scaled description of wave and tidal resources of the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Strategic Area to the Atlas of UK Marine Renewable Energy Resources. 

Updated summary wave and tidal resource parameters for the strategic area can now be viewed here.

The application of a detailed hydrodynamic model has provided the means to down-scale across the strategic area, increasing the level of detail in the tidal resource by more than 300 times from the freely available national-scale 3-Dimensional Atlas data.  For waves, the length of wave hind-cast has been extended from 8 to 20-years, enabling more robust resource statistics.  All approaches have recognised the benefits of emerging IEC standards for wave and tidal resource assessments.

Bill Cooper, ABPmer’s Managing Director, said: “The work we have delivered to The Crown Estate clearly demonstrates the importance of down-scaling to the strategic scale so that the best available information remains available for local planning decisions.  The new information now forms an important data layer in The Crown Estate’s Marine Resource System (MaRS) and The Wave and Tidal Knowledge Network. We are pleased to have permission from The Crown Estate to openly share the outputs from this work with the wider industry through our Atlas website.”

Now completed, information regarding the wave and tidal regimes can be downloaded from the website.

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Press release, April 24, 2013; Image: