Toward Continuous Subsea Data

Why is now the time?

A fundamental shift in demand

To build and maintain anything offshore, i.e. into or on the seabed, requires a plethora of subsea data because it is completely inaccessible by humans. Today, the biggest driver of subsea data demand is fixed-foundation offshore wind. The introduction of floating offshore wind, which will be even larger in scale and complexity, will perpetuate this further. To put some numbers on it, as illustrated in the graph below titled “Global offshore wind capacity forecast by country” from RenewableUK [7], it is estimated that global installed capacity will grow from ~100GW in 2025 to ~250GW in 2030.

Figure 1. Global Offshore Wind Capacity Forecast By Country [7]

More critically, offshore wind is the force to overcome the inertia of the flywheel of perpetually increasing amounts of subsea data. The first knock on effect is that once installed, there is the need for repeated surveying over the life of the windfarm. The second is that there is the need for this critical national infrastructure to be protected (militarily). Combined, this drives innovation that inevitably reduces costs, which inevitably opens up even more industries - like wave and tidal renewable energy; blue hydrogen production; and blue carbon farming. And so the cycle continues, completely shifting the demand for subsea data.

The advancement of enabling technologies

For this demand to be met, there has to be a fundamental shift in supply. The emergence of autonomous, unmanned, and lean-manned survey vessels is the most visible indicator of this. These are enabled by the advancement of the same technologies that enable continuous data: (1) semiconductors; (2) software (cloud, autonomy, machine learning, artificial intelligence); (3) communications (internet, over-the-horizon); and (4) sensors. In short, these technologies enable greater volumes of data, of a wider variety, to move through the acquisition-to-decision lifecycle faster.

The effect is that:

• Accessible data storage is near infinite.
• Accessible compute power is near infinite onshore (though costly). Compute power offshore is sufficient to enable autonomous vessel operation.
• Vessels can be remotely operated and accessed; or data can be delivered remotely to shore. Either way, data is no longer like a container that is moved from port to port, but a stream from source to consumption.

Earth observation using satellites has already gone through a similar transition. In 2013, Planet (https://www.planet.com/) launched their first constellation of shoebox or cube satellites. Today, their satellites have the capability to map the earth’s survey 5 - 7 times per day, at a resolution of 50cm. This has unlocked the ability to do things like inform search and rescue after a major weather event, identify the precision of a military strike, or monitor the deforestation of a specific area. These are examples not of mapping the earth’s surface, but rather being able to analyse changes in real-time to inform critical decisions. In summary, the advancement of enabling technologies means that today, you can work with data continuously in revolutionary new ways.

Our future demands it

As David Attenborough said: “After living for nearly 100 years on this planet, I now understand the most important place on earth is not on land but at sea.” [8]. “The ocean generates 50 percent of the oxygen we need, absorbs 30 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions and captures 90 percent of the excess heat generated by these emissions” [9]. Moreover, it is estimated that the total number of people working in the ‘ocean-based energy sector’ will grow from 559,000 in 2018 to 774,000 in 2050 [10]. Whichever way you look at it, we simultaneously need to grow the value harnessed from the oceans while significantly increasing the conservation of our oceans.

Value creation comes from unlocking new ways to solve existing problems, and in solving them, creating new problems that can be solved with more of the same resources. As any industry matures, value creation shifts from raw materials, to first derivative products or services, to second order derivatives, and so on. The value in earth observation was initially being able to map the earth’s surface, then it was to use those maps to inform what was done, now it is monitoring what is done to enable better decisions. Offshore wind is arguably still at the source or raw material stage. Green hydrogen production for electricity generation would be the second derivative; and hydrogen powered vessels the third. This all requires scaling up the industry, which is foundationally dependent on subsea data.

On the other hand, larger scale and more effective conservation is first and foremost about subsea data. Given that the oceans are over 316 million km², truly understanding the impact of any human activity requires the collection and analysis of vast quantities of data. More importantly, to be effective, i.e. monitor change that informs decisions, this data needs to be collected and analysed continuously. Therefore, to ensure our future, which is our oceans, we need continuous subsea data.