For 20 years, the UK Atlas of Marine Renewable Energy has informed decision-making in UK marine renewable energy development. Originally published in 2004 under funding from the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) programme for Offshore Energy, today it is the most recognised source of publicly available data for waves, tides and winds in UK waters.

The Atlas is widely used for development planning through initial appraisal of metocean conditions, and its outputs frequently appear in baseline characterisation studies including sections of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) reports.

In recognition of the 20th anniversary, and in response to the evolving needs of the industry, the UK Renewables Atlas has been updated to deliver more information in support of renewable energy developments. These improvements include visual and navigational updates and additional features for an enhanced user experience.

Additional data and layers

To build on the foundation of wind, wave and tide data available since inception, the following data and data layers have been added to the Atlas, providing a comprehensive, all-in-one dataset:

• The Crown Estate and Crown Estate Scotland lease areas for wind, wave and tide;
• Seabed sediments and bedrock from the British Geological Survey (BGS);
• Marine Plan Areas for England; and
• Wind and wave summary statistics, and rose plots from ABPmer’s SEASTATES metocean database.

Improved usability

We recognise the need for a tool that is easy to navigate, while also providing access to a wide range of data for interrogation. To this end, the following useability updates have been made:

• Simplified layout and navigation;
• Improved responsiveness across multiple devices, ensuring a seamless experience across desktop, tablet and mobile;
• Inclusion of data layer search function; and
• Ability to interrogate multiple data layers simultaneously.

The future

This latest update will not be the last. The ABPmer development team is looking to provide users with even more tools to interrogate the dataset, as well as add to the existing data, including the introduction of a seabed mobility index layer. Where possible, we also plan to include future data layers as they become publicly available, including those from metocean datasets that the Crown Estate may choose to develop in the coming years.

What would you like to see from the UK Renewables Atlas?
If you have any further suggestions for additional feature improvements or data, we would love to hear from you; please get in touch with our team.

Explore the Atlas at renewables-atlas.info