Energy Case Studies

Severn Tidal Power Feasibility Study

ABPmer is part of the successful consortium undertaking the SEA for tidal power options in the Severn Estuary.  During the recently completed scoping phase, ABPmer’s knowledge of the marine environment has been applied to the assessment of impacts in relation to geomorphology, water quality, marine ecology and other seabed uses. The company also provided input to the preliminary review of mitigation and compensation measures.

The studies being undertaken for the SEA include detailed numerical modelling of the hydrodynamic and sedimentary regime within the Severn Estuary and how these will respond to the construction of a range of tidal generation schemes. The outputs from the hydrodynamics and geomorphology studies will inform a number of other assessments including those of water quality and marine ecology, which will also be undertaken by ABPmer.

Westermost Rough Offshore Wind Farm

ABPmer’s technical abilities have supported the majority of Round 1 and Round 2 Offshore Wind Developers with initial site assessments and coastal process studies.  One such study that we are currently supporting is the Westermost Rough Offshore Wind Farm, a Round 2 development approximately 9km off the Holderness Coast, UK. 

ABPmer are involved with a number of activities for this proposed development which includes a hydrographical field campaign, metocean analysis and a detailed coastal process assessment.  The latter uses desk-based empirical and numerical modelling techniques, based upon field data and available literature, to determine the potential impacts of the proposed scheme upon the hydrodynamic, sedimentological and morphological regimes, within both the immediate footprint of the development and the far-field.  

UK Atlas of Marine Renewable Energy Resources

ABPmer led the production of the Atlas of the UK Marine Renewable Energy Resources for the Department of Trade & Industry now BERR (Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform), in 2004.

During 2008, our in-house GIS and Data team updated the Atlas so as to provide users with an online version providing a more focussed output tailored to the needs of renewable industry as a whole.  The latest edition uses wind and wave datasets derived from a seven-year archive of data which enabled inter-annual variability statistics to be included within the results and the tidal dataset benefits from enhanced vertical data resolution provided by five independent layers of model output. 

Our website expertise enabled an interactive webGIS dissemination tool which provides resource mapping as well as access to additional information and the underlying GIS datasets (http://www.renewables-atlas.info/)

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