What is the name of your organization?
Ithaca Clean Energy
What is the name of your solution?
Waterfront
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Facilitating coexistence between fisheries and offshore wind through digital stakeholder engagement technology
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
New Bedford, MA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
United States
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
There are currently no solutions that distribute stakeholder-specific real-time information between fisheries and offshore wind (OSW) developers. Knowledge of real-time activities of OSW vessels before setting sea can avoid potential marine conflicts and reduce OSW projects' impacts on fisheries and the marine environment, promoting marine coexistence. Potential hazards within OSW farm boundaries, such as collisions with offshore wind turbines/assets and entanglement of gear with exposed cables, can reduce fish harvesting in these areas and lead to fisheries displacement. For fishermen, lack of awareness on marine activity compromises safety. Without this knowledge, potential conflicts may lead to opposition to OSW project and extension of project timelines. Our solution reduces conflicts between OSW developers and fisheries with the ultimate goal of expediting project permitting processes and generating more clean energy.
The Port of New Bedford is home to 300-400 commercial fishing vessels and ~570 recreational vessels, is the highest valued commercial fishing port in the US and has been labeled as “the port where the fishing and offshore wind industry intersect more than anywhere else” (SouthCoastToday). Massachusetts is home to 2,678 MW of deployed OSW capacity. The capacity of deployed OSW globally could reach 450 GW by 2032 (Westwood Global Energy Group).
What is your solution?
Our data-integrated marine stakeholder engagement application, Waterfront, streamlines the communication of relevant project information pertaining to marine activities, site-specific metocean data, bathymetry, weather forecasting, and AIS marine traffic directly to local project stakeholders in real time. Waterfront is a digital platform that distributes real-time, location-based notifications on OSW projects’ live activities to marine stakeholders, and vice versa, through an easy-to-use mobile device-based app. Our product is free to download for all stakeholders and allows them to view real-time project updates on a dynamic map interface. With our product, stakeholders can pin the live location of their gear for pre-emptive gear damage/loss mitigation, directly message offshore wind projects and other stakeholders, access live news and local events feeds, track their activities on the water, and document live ecological observations. The app enables messaging and vessel tracking to prevent collisions and conflicts, streamlining the permitting process and minimizing financial loss. These features broadcast vital data that keeps stakeholders informed and maintains their safety.
Product demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bHfpYrodN4
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Waterfront is a maritime external affairs tool that allows offshore wind (OSW) developers to rapidly communicate activity to other mariners, reducing risks of adverse interactions. Our product alleviates the adverse socio-economic impact of offshore wind development on fisheries and other marine communities via seamless digital communication and engagement. Efficient, timely, and secure data sharing facilitates co-existence between offshore wind and marine stakeholders. This benefits OSW developers by expediting OSW project permitting and is essential in enabling the growth of offshore wind renewable energy generation. Waterfront has marine stakeholder centric functionalities (such as gear pinning) that reduce siting conflicts and increase navigational safety, thus lowering construction, operations, and maintenance costs for offshore wind developers.
Our solution empowers fisheries communities by providing them with free real-time marine information on clean energy projects that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For fishermen, data evidence facilitates lower insurance premiums, which strengthens relationships with OSW developers. The app enables messaging and vessel tracking to prevent collisions and conflicts, minimizing financial loss for fishermen. Waterfront’s gear pinning functionality reduces the chances of damage/loss to fisheries gear, and therefore the quantity of mitigation compensation costs.
