Marine renewables: Exploring the opportunity for combining wind and wave energy

Resource diversity is considered the key to manage the intrinsic variability of renewable energy sources and to lower their system integration costs. The expected development of Marine Renewable Energy Installations is likely to result in further transformation of coastal sea areas, already heavily impacted. In this perspective, the combination of different renewables and their potential impact on the environment must be evaluated in the context of the existing pressures. In this study the opportunity of co-locating offshore wind turbines and wave energy converters and their environmental sustainability is evaluated through a quantitative Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) approach.