The manager of the seabed in Scotland, Crown Estate Scotland, has made offshore spatial data relating to the organization’s offshore assets freely available for the first time.
The data covers infrastructure projects and undersea cabling and can be used by a range of organizations from oil and gas and renewable energy companies to consultancies and educational institutes.
Featured on the Crown Estate Scotland website, the data reveals the geographic extent and some attribute information for all the organization’s offshore legal agreements, the organization said.
An interactive map showing the organization’s live agreements by sector ranging from aquaculture sites to various coastal activities, enables visitors to pan across Scotland to view the variety of activities in each locale.
John Robertson , Senior Energy Manager at Crown Estate Scotland said: “As a land and asset manager, Crown Estate Scotland has a responsibility to maintain authoritative records about the status and change of the land and seabed we manage. We also want to work openly and transparently.
“With a number of both large scale and smaller projects already in Scottish waters, this will give companies working in the sector the chance to scope out other opportunities to work with Crown Estate Scotland and our partners.”
Crown Estate Scotland, which was formed in April 2017, is responsible for around half the foreshore around Scotland, leasing of virtually all seabed out to 12 nautical miles and the right to offshore renewable energy and gas and carbon storage out to 200 nautical miles.
When it comes to tidal energy developments, Crown Estate Scotland’s predecessor organization, The Crown Estate, has invested nearly £10 million in the MeyGen tidal energy project, being developed by Atlantis Resources, to help unlock Scotland’s tidal energy potential, as part of a £50 million funding package with UK and Scottish Governments and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
Currently, Crown Estate Scotland offers the opportunity for technology developers to access seabed for wave and tidal current projects of up to 30MW.