Blue-X - Blue Energy Offshore Installation Accelerator

Key principles of the Green Deal are to prioritize energy efficiency, develop a power sector based on renewable resources, to secure an affordable EU energy supply and to have a fully integrated, interconnected digitalized 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 use of offshore space. Blue renewable energy sources such as offshore (floating) wind, floating solar, 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 technology, lengthy and expensive MetOcean, geophysical and environmental campaigns are needed, which slow down the upscaling of offshore renewables.  

The activities conducted under the project “Blue Energy Offshore Installation Accelerator (BLUE-X)” will contribute to the Green Deal objectives and its related policies, regarding increasing the EU’s climate ambitions 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 optimizing 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 (EO) and MetOcean data streams that are combined in a decision support tool for each phase. Beyond assessing environmental conditions, the platform provides insights into long-term potentials of key variables specific to each energy type, thereby supporting informed site selection and strategic planning. High-resolution near-real-time (NRT) and forecast data will furthermore support the operational phase. As a result, the planning and construction phase can be significantly optimized, thereby reducing costs, and required time to full operation. Due to their extensive temporal and spatial coverage, EO datasets can effectively substitute many aspects of traditional on-site surveys, thereby streamline feasibility assessments and reduce fieldwork requirements.  

The within BLUE-X developed decision support tool will be available and showcased for all key offshore energy domains and for some of the most important European offshore projects to date but can be applied anywhere.