Criteria

Substrate Types
The seafloor contains various types of sediment, not all of which are suitable for
sediment development. Four basic methods types of wind turbine foundation
consist of: Monopiles, jackets, tripods, and the gravity foundation. The type of
foundation used depends on wave height, wind speed, water depth and turbine
weight. All these foundation types require relatively soft sediment for penetration
of the sea floor by the piles (Kaiser & Snyder, 2012).
Seven substrate categories are created from the available substrate data and
given suitability score. Rock or other hard substrate and seabed receive the
score of one, for this sediment is too hard for penetration. Mud to sandy mud
and till are given the score of two because it is too soft for the piles to stay
fixed. Sandy to muddy sand is given the score of three because is suitable for
pile driving but is less ideal than mixed sediments which is given a score of four .
Coarse sediment is given highest suitability score of five because it is most
suitable for wind turbine foundation.
Shipping Routes
The North Sea contains several set shipping routes that accommodate transport
over sea. As a safety measure all renewable energy projects are prohibited within
a 2.8 kilometre safety buffer to prevent ships from colliding with the wind
turbines (Melnyk & Andersen, 2009).
To visualise this in the model a 2.8 kilometre buffer is created in the suitability
map in which no turbines can be placed even if the other criteria work very well
on these locations. To calculate this in the model, areas within the shipping buffer
get a suitability score of zero. Areas outside the buffer receive a score of one.
Coast proximity
The development of a wind turbine park is becomes more expensive with
increasing distance to land. The further away from land the higher the building,
transport and cable costs and the higher the engineering risks like transmission
losses. And being that export cable alone costs one million Euros per kilometre,
these expensed can run up quite high (Mainstream Renewable Power, 2013). To reduce
these costs a 20 kilometre buffer is created measured from the shore line, a
method adopted from renewable energy projects in the UK (Mainstream Renewable
Power, 2013). Because this criteria such an important one, areas within the coastal
buffer receive a score seven. Areas outside the buffer get a score of one.
Military areas
Some areas in the North Sea are appointed military areas. These areas are used
for military purposes. Their usage can varying form Flight Manoeuvres and Firing
to Mining and Munition dumping. Not all these areas are suitable for the
development of a wind turbine park. The military areas used for the dumping of
ammunition and the areas that have no specified usage are closed for renewable
energy projects by law. The other military areas specified mining areas, firing
practice, bombing range, sonarbuoy, submarine areas and torpedo areas are
however, suitable for wind farm development (van der Wal & Quirijns , 2011). To be
able to display this in the map, the unsuitable military areas receive a score of

zero, the areas used for Flight Manoeuvres receive a score of two. The other
military areas get a score of one

Wind speed
Wind turbines start operating at wind speeds of four to five metres per second.
They reach their maximum power output at 15 metres/second. North Sea wind
speed data taken by GN shows us the average wind speed over months/years.
The higher the wind speed, the higher electricity generated (EWEA, 2015). For
this reason areas with the fastest wind speeds receive the highest suitability
score. It has to be noted that the wind speed data did not cover the top part of
the research area. To solve the missing data issue the researchers analysed the
wind speed data and saw that wind speed increased with latitude on the North
Sea. In the assumption that this trend continues but cautious because it is a risk,
the no-data areas receive a medium score of four.
Nature conservation areas
Many countries that surround the North Sea have appointed Nature Conservation
Areas within their Exclusive Economic Zone. The legislation on how utilize these
areas differs per government. Some countries have the policy that if an area is
designated as a wind park it cannot also be an conservation area. Other
countries state that it can be both (Lensink, 2015). Other options are to build in the
nature conservation areas but pay for the compensation areas (Lensink, 2015).
Because of the varying legislations on this criteria the researchers decided to
give the locations in inside the Nature conservation areas a suitability score one.
The areas outside the Nature conservation areas receive a score of five.

Bibliography
EWEA. (2015). Wind energy's frequently asked questions (FAQ). Retrieved 11 25,
2015, from http://www.ewea.org/wind-energy-basics/faq/
Kaiser, M., & Snyder, B. (2012). Offshore wind energy cost modeling instalation
and decomissioning. Berlin: Springer.
Lensink, S. (2015). Wind op Zee. Leeuwarden: ECN.
Mainstream Renewable Power. (2013). Offshore Wind Farms Distance to SHore
Calculation made Easy. Munich: Esri.
Melnyk, M., & Andersen, R. (2009). Offshore Power. Tusla: PennWell Corp.
van der Wal , J., & Quirijns , F. (2011). WindSpeed. Wageningen: IMARES.