I-MORE: Informing and Mapping the Offshore Renewable Environment

Project Description

Offshore wind energy is rapidly coming of age, with global offshore wind output at the end of 2018 at approximately 20GW. In parallel with this increased volume of offshore energy, there has been a dramatic reduction in the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCoE) for recent European projects. Despite offshore wind gaining global traction and Ireland being one of the earliest movers of this technology when the Arklow Bank Phase 1 wind farm was commissioned in 2004, Ireland is now behind the curve with respect to global offshore wind markets. The I-MORE project aims to act as a pilot study to demonstrate the potential for early stage national survey campaigns to provide baseline data to inform marine spatial planning and optimised offshore wind developments. The project will focus on gathering early stage site information with respect to geological, geophysical, geotechnical and metocean conditions to allow a holistic view of an offshore zone/site to be determined. The output of the project will be a high resolution geotechnical ground model with the data made freely available according to a GIS open source database. In addition, guidance on how this model can be used will be provided, as well as marine spatial planning guidance. Ultimately, the I-MORE project aims to demonstrate the potential for these surveys to be paid for directly upfront and delivered at a national level and disseminated through public platforms, reducing the overall cost of projects.