This page provides basic information on the combination between offshore renewable energy and cables and pipelines, and will be further populated as more information becomes available.
Cables are core components of Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Infrastructure, ensuring energy transmission. The pattern of cables within any ORE production site is designed to ensure connectivity and energy transmission/conversion outside the site.
But cables and pipelines are not only associated with ORE. Telecommunication cables carry digital data such as internet or telephone calls between countries and connect telecommunication networks. Electrical cables carry energy between countries but also between ORE infrastructures and the mainland. Pipelines have a different purpose: they transport oil or gas between countries or between platforms and the coast.
For all of them, security and safety are pivotal. They are usually registered on nautical charts. Therefore, the design of any ORE infrastructure must ensure a safe and secure compatibility with pre-existing cable and pipeline layouts.
- SECTORS' CHARACTERISTICS
Cables and pipelines
Across all sea basins, countries are connected by numerous submarine cables such as telecommunication cables that carry digital data, electrical cables that carry energy, and pipelines that transport oil or gas.
Most cables are buried beneath the seabed or are protected externally. However, some cables remain partially or totally unburied and lie on the surface of the sea floor. Pipelines are fixed and laid in protected trenches.
Cables and pipelines are strategic elements for the functioning of the globalized economy as they connect countries and continents and transport key flows. Disruption of their functioning could result in severe financial damage and impact key sectors. For pipelines the effects can be even more serious, as damage to pipelines can also cause serious environmental impacts.
Pipelines are mainly owned by private oil and gas companies, while telecom cables are owned by public limited companies and electricity cables by Transmission System Operators (TSOs). International key players are The European Subsea Cables Association [1] and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC)[2].
Offshore renewable energy
Offshore Renewable Energy (or Marine Renewable Energy - MRE) is a major source of green energy that significantly contributes to the EU’s 2050 Energy Strategy and the European Green Deal. The EU therefore set ambitious objectives for the marine renewables industry, that will need to scale up five times by 2030 and 25 times by 2050 to support the Green Deal’s objectives [3].
MRE technologies can be broadly divided into 7 categories [4]:
- Offshore wind power: Electricity is produced by turbines, which harness energy from the wind blowing over stretches of sea;
- Wave power: capturing the movement of sea waves and turning it into electrical energy;
- Tidal power: harnessing energy from tides and converting it into electrical energy;
- Stream Energy: harnessing kinetic energy from currents and turning it into electrical energy;
- Osmotic power: Collecting the energy released by the difference in salt concentrations when a river flows into the sea;
- Ocean energy thermal conversion: using the temperature difference between deep water and the surface to generate electricity;
- Marine biomass: algae could be used to produce fuels.
These technologies have very different degrees of development and maturity: some are already very advanced and widely operated worldwide while others are still at research level. As Offshore Wind Farms (OWF) are the most developed technology when it comes to MRE, they will constitute the main example of OREI in the following pages.
For more European statistics and data you can also visit the Eurostat website
- References
Existing co-existence and multi-use initiatives
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