Impact of Tidal Stream Site Interconnectivity on Resource Assessments

To reduce the uncertainty in resource assessments, the physical presence of the turbine arrays must be accounted for. Using a 3-D Regional Ocean Model with tidal stream energy extraction, we show that in regions where tidal stream energy sites have been leased in close proximity to each other there is some degree of inter-connectivity. In this paper a methodology is presented to identify the levels of connectivity between adjacent tidal energy developments to aid resource assessments and marine spatial planning.