Integrating Blue Energy in Maritime Spatial Planning of Mediterranean Regions

Abstract

Blue Energy (BE) is expected to play a strategic role in the energy transition of Europe, particularly toward the 2050 horizon. It refers to a set of Marine Energy Sources (MES), including offshore wind, waves, tides, marine currents, sea thermal energy, salinity gradients, and marine biomass, which are exploited by different BE technologies. Nevertheless, the implementation of integrated solutions to exploit MES in marine areas does not just concern technological issues; it requires inclusive planning practices considering different aspects regarding climate and environmental impacts, landscape compatibility, interference with other marine activities (such as shipping, fishing, and tourism), and social acceptance. A replicable BE planning framework has been developed based on interdisciplinary knowledge in three Mediterranean sites in Greece, Croatia, and Cyprus, under the scope of the Interreg Med BLUE DEAL project. It has been implemented by some interdisciplinary experts through a collaborative and iterative process of data elaboration, mapping, evaluation, and visualization. Results concern the localization of suitable sites to install BE plants and the estimation of potential energy production and avoided emissions in selected scenarios. Together with visual simulations, this study shows the potential effects of the implementation of BE in specific marine areas, with a special focus on the most promising offshore floating wind farms and wave energy converters (WECs), as basic information for participative design and stakeholder engagement initiatives, including public authorities, businesses, and citizens.

Exploitation of an operative wave forecast system for energy resource assessment in the Mediterranean Sea

“…Basin-wide, climatological wave energy resource maps have been presented in Pulselli et al (2022), who also describe the overall methodology of the Blue Deal systematic approach to marine energy exploitation in the Mediterranean. Here we will focus on the high-resolution results at locations where the feasibility of WEC deployment has emerged, for which the stakeholders manifested interest in exploring realistic viability during the Blue Deal Labs.…”

“…This work has been carried out within the Blue Deal Project (https://blue-deal.interreg-med.eu), which addressed many of the highlighted criticalities of WEC deployment in the environmentally sensitive Mediterranean region, by connecting experts from the different fields of engineering and environmental sciences, administrative bodies and citizen organizations, with the aim to both design viable pathways for marine energy exploitation and increase social awareness as to the opportunities offered by the sector. Specifically, the project designed a methodology to coherently address site-technology matching through (i) technology classification and assessment and (ii) preliminary site selection based on energy resource availability, also accounting for the issues posed by environmental protection and by the necessary governance of inter-sectorial competition (Pulselli et al, 2022). Together with the ongoing developmental assessment of devices, these constitute the complementary building blocks of the successful evaluation, selection and implementation of WEC systems, as schematically represented in Figure 1.…”

“…In Pulselli et al (2022), the preliminary selection of the promising sites has mainly relied on monthly wave climatology maps, which were then confronted with the specific requirements of different technologies suitable for the Mediterranean conditions, and overlapped with the spatial distribution of protected areas and critical ecosystems (e.g., Posidonia Oceanica meadows), as well as of the areas reserved for marine traffic. Historical hindcast data are often used to quantify the wave energy resource.…”

“…Classification schemes are based on the categories defined by Lehmann et al (2017). The three bands in the Blue Deal logo colours encompass the components that have been addressed during the project lifetime, following the indications of the Blue Deal Methodology (Pulselli et al, 2022). The local resource assessment activities that are the object of this paper fall into the site-technology matching component, and are highlighted in red.…”