The Crown Estate undertook a review of the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters Strategic Area to evaluate whether additional wave and tidal projects, at test and/or demonstration scale, could be leased in a part(s) of the strategic area.

To help them understand the magnitude and extent of cumulative effects on waves and tides from multiple planned developments, ABPmer was commissioned to develop a regional wave and tidal model.

Using boundary conditions from SEASTATES we built high resolution resource models of the strategic area. Using these models we evaluated the distribution of energy resources and reviewed key risks to the existing projects.

We ran scenarios to predict how the eleven existing projects, once installed, may interact with the wave and tidal resources. We also used the model outputs to identify where the best locations exist for large commercial-scale wave and tidal projects.

The new models can also be used to better understand the magnitude and extent of cumulative effects from multiple planned developments.

The regional scale characterisation of marine energy resources is the logical next step to down-scale from the UK Atlas of Marine Renewable Energy.

^{Image © 2015 DigitalGlobe/Getmapping plc}