ForeCoast® Marine: A decade of innovation in offshore wind planning and operational software
Over the past decade, ForeCoast® Marine has evolved from a pioneering simulation system into one of the offshore wind industry’s most advanced strategic and operational planning platforms. Read on to find out more about the next chapter in ForeCoast® Marine’s journey with Kinewell Energy.
Building the foundation: Early deployment and industry integration
ForeCoast® Marine’s journey began through a collaborative innovation programme supported by Innovate UK and Scottish Enterprise. Developed in-house by our marine, metocean and risk specialists, the software supports offshore wind projects worldwide - shaping designs, optimising operational strategies, reducing carbon emissions, and increasing resilience in a rapidly growing global sector.
Working with partners including the Met Office, the National Oceanography Centre, ScottishPower Renewables and the University of Edinburgh, JBA developed an early prototype system that was demonstrated on several UK offshore wind projects. These early deployments demonstrated the software’s ability to simulate complex offshore operations, forecast project bottlenecks, and benchmark competing strategies - laying the technical foundation for its wider industry adoption.
A significant step in ForeCoast® Marine’s early development was its integration with SeaPlanner™, enhancing project planning workflows across construction and operations. This collaboration helped position ForeCoast® Marine as a powerful decision support tool, enabling better coordination, safer operations, and improved accuracy in offshore programme management.
Driving operational efficiency and underwater innovation
As offshore operations became more sophisticated, the software expanded to support new markets and technologies. Modus Seabed Intervention selected ForeCoast® Marine to optimise operations for its hybrid autonomous underwater vehicles (H‑AUVs), using the platform to improve operational efficiency and maximise returns from next‑generation subsea assets.
This milestone demonstrated the software’s flexibility - not only for wind turbine installation and cabling, but also for diverse marine and subsea operations requiring high‑fidelity modelling and complex logistics optimisation.
Supporting climate resilience and global expansion
ForeCoast® Marine continued to adapt to a changing climate, enabling users to explore the potential impact of future climate scenarios, assess resilience, and build strategies that perform under uncertain metocean conditions. The platform’s international reach grew significantly during a successful trade mission to the USA, bringing JBA’s decision-support capabilities to emerging offshore wind markets.
The development of global metocean datasets - including the integration of ERA5 - has significantly streamlined access to robust hindcast conditions. Enhancements to the user interface, particularly the introduction of advanced cloning features, enabled users to build projects rapidly and consistently. Together, these improvements allowed users to conduct complex downtime assessments and long‑term operational modelling using a unified, high‑quality data source in a quick and easy way.
Delivering value at scale
As the offshore wind sector pushed toward Net Zero, ForeCoast® Marine evolved to support low‑carbon and next-generation vessel technologies. The software has been central to groundbreaking work on low‑carbon installation vessels for floating offshore wind, simulating vessel performance, carbon emissions, energy use and logistics under real-world environmental conditions. These insights are now helping shape the future of offshore service fleets.
The tool has also been deployed to support vessel decarbonisation strategies more broadly, providing developers and vessel designers with data-driven evidence to reduce emissions across installation and operations.
ForeCoast® Marine has guided decision-making for large-scale offshore wind farms, including the Inch Cape project, where it simulated installation strategies for foundations, inter-array cables, offshore substations, export cables, and turbine generators. The software enabled the rapid comparison of competing strategies using metrics such as CAPEX, OPEX, programme duration, and weather downtime - directly contributing to project efficiency and de-risking.
This work also strengthened JBA’s modelling expertise across all major phases of offshore wind construction, further enhancing the platform’s capabilities.
A platform shaping the future of offshore wind
What began as a novel simulation system has grown into a globally recognised platform that enables safer, more cost‑effective and climate‑resilient offshore wind development. Today, ForeCoast® Marine supports clients in designing and optimising wind farms, planning complex installation campaigns, managing operations and maintenance, and evaluating low‑carbon vessel technologies - all while reducing weather risk and downtime. It provides robust insight across project lifecycles and under future climate scenarios, offering developers the confidence to deliver resilient, efficient offshore wind solutions.
Through continual investment, innovative partnerships and extensive real‑world deployment, ForeCoast® Marine continues to evolve in step with the needs of a rapidly expanding global offshore wind market. As the industry accelerates towards Net Zero, the platform remains at the forefront of digital offshore planning - helping clients navigate uncertainty, maximise performance and deliver the clean energy systems of the future.
The next chapter in ForeCoast® Marine’s journey will be with our friends at Kinewell Energy – a company we have collaborated with for several years. JBA Consulting and Kinewell Energy previously joined forces to offer offshore wind developers a comprehensive solution for inter-array cable design and installation, through enhanced access to Kinewell's KLOC software and JBA's ForeCoast® Marine platform. From today, ForeCoast® Marine will now be available directly through Kinewell Energy.
Discover more about ForeCoast® Marine and its future on Kinewell's website.
