Marico Marine has been picked as the winner of the third Admiralty Marine Innovation Programme challenge for a geospatial mapping tool that can support development of offshore renewables projects.
The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) and Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) set participants in the competition the task of using marine geospatial data to help identify new areas for offshore renewable energy infrastructure.
In response to this challenge, Marico Marine developed a geospatial constraints mapping toolkit that helps developers and regulators to understand the impact shipping could have on projects from an early stage in the planning process.
By combining Admiralty data with advanced GIS analysis and professional mariner expertise, the toolkit allows the identification of potential hotspots within proposed project boundaries.
The impact projects could have on shipping and wider maritime navigation is a key consideration for consenting authorities, yet it is often considered late in the licence application process.
Marico Marine’s solution will make it commercially viable for shipping and wider maritime navigation implications to be considered at an earlier stage, potentially saving millions of pounds of investment.
Marico Marine UK director Andre Cocuccio said: “We are extremely proud to be selected by the UKHO as winners of this innovation challenge, and have ambitious plans for the solution in the offshore renewables market.
“With this partnership, the opportunity for Marico to develop an alpha product supported by the expertise and authoritative data supplied by the UKHO is an exciting one.
“Shipping and navigation is a complex receptor to evaluate, and our product is targeted at reducing the likelihood that proposed projects are rejected on these grounds.
“We look forward to the months ahead and developing a powerful product with the UKHO that we hope will have a real impact on the industry.”