Abstract
The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) is a multipurpose technical-scientific service infrastructure that provides support for research, technological development and innovation in the marine and maritime sectors, available to public and private users. PLOCAN offers both onshore and offshore experimental facilities and laboratories, operational throughout the whole year thanks to the Canary Islands excellent climatic conditions. PLOCAN also brings a broad experience in large national and EU marine/maritime projects.
PLOCAN is, thus, a Public consortium aimed to promote research, development and innovation in the field of marine sciences and technology, supporting the industry to test and demonstrate the feasibility of emerging technologies. PLOCAN has a marine test site at the North-East coast of Gran Canaria island (Canary Islands, Spain), occupying a marine area of 23 km2 with a range of depths among 20 m and 600 m, shown in Figure 1. The test site includes an underwater electrical and communication grid directly connected to an onshore electrical substation.
This marine test site will be the place where the PivotBuoy prototype will be tested, and this deliverable will ensure that the environmental conditions where the system will be deployed are well fed into the design process in WP2.