scholarly journals Risk Retirement—Decreasing Uncertainty and Informing Consenting Processes for Marine Renewable Energy Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea E. Copping ◽  
Mikaela C. Freeman ◽  
Alicia M. Gorton ◽  
Lenaïg G. Hemery
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Tidal Energy ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Marine Animals ◽  
Marine Renewable Energy ◽  
Renewable Energy Development ◽  
Electricity Grids ◽  
Project Site ◽  
Low Carbon Energy

Marine renewable energy (MRE) is under development in many coastal nations, adding to the portfolio of low carbon energy sources that power national electricity grids as well as off-grid uses in isolated areas and at sea. Progress in establishing the MRE industry, largely wave and tidal energy, has been slowed in part due to uncertainty about environmental risks of these devices, including harm to marine animals and habitats, and the associated concerns of regulators and stakeholders. A process for risk retirement was developed to organize and apply knowledge in a strategic manner that considered whether specific environmental effects are likely to cause harm. The risk retirement process was tested against two key MRE stressors: effects of underwater noise from operational MRE devices on marine animals, and effects of electromagnetic fields from MRE electrical export cables on marine animals. The effects of installation of MRE devices were not accounted for in this analysis. Applying the risk retirement process could decrease the need for costly investigations of each potential effect at every new MRE project site and help move the industry beyond current barriers.

scholarly journals Potential Environmental Effects of Marine Renewable Energy Development—The State of the Science

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 879
Author(s):  
Andrea E. Copping ◽  
Lenaïg G. Hemery ◽  
Dorian M. Overhus ◽  
Lysel Garavelli ◽  
Mikaela C. Freeman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Electromagnetic Fields ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Underwater Noise ◽  
Marine Animals ◽  
Mooring Lines ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Marine Renewable Energy

Marine renewable energy (MRE) harnesses energy from the ocean and provides a low-carbon sustainable energy source for national grids and remote uses. The international MRE industry is in the early stages of development, focused largely on tidal and riverine turbines, and wave energy converters (WECs), to harness energy from tides, rivers, and waves, respectively. Although MRE supports climate change mitigation, there are concerns that MRE devices and systems could affect portions of the marine and river environments. The greatest concern for tidal and river turbines is the potential for animals to be injured or killed by collision with rotating blades. Other risks associated with MRE device operation include the potential for turbines and WECs to cause disruption from underwater noise emissions, generation of electromagnetic fields, changes in benthic and pelagic habitats, changes in oceanographic processes, and entanglement of large marine animals. The accumulated knowledge of interactions of MRE devices with animals and habitats to date is summarized here, along with a discussion of preferred management methods for encouraging MRE development in an environmentally responsible manner. As there are few devices in the water, understanding is gained largely from examining one to three MRE devices. This information indicates that there will be no significant effects on marine animals and habitats due to underwater noise from MRE devices or emissions of electromagnetic fields from cables, nor changes in benthic and pelagic habitats, or oceanographic systems. Ongoing research to understand potential collision risk of animals with turbine blades still shows significant uncertainty. There has been no significant field research undertaken on entanglement of large animals with mooring lines and cables associated with MRE devices.

Lessons for low-carbon energy transition: Experience from the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP)

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binu Parthan ◽  
Marianne Osterkorn ◽  
Matthew Kennedy ◽  
St. John Hoskyns ◽  
Morgan Bazilian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Transition Experience ◽  
Low Carbon Energy

National Policies to Promote Renewable Energy

Daedalus ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 141 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed T. El-Ashry
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Energy Security ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Energy Access ◽  
Renewable Energy Resources ◽  
The World ◽  
New Energy ◽  
Main Driver ◽  
Low Carbon Energy

The world is entering a new energy era marked by concerns over energy security, climate change, and access by the poor to modern energy services. Yet the current energy path is not compatible with sustainable development objectives. Global demand for energy will continue to grow; so will CO2 emissions. Achieving a low-carbon energy world will require an unprecedented technological transformation in the way energy is produced and used. That transformation has begun, as renewables capacity continues to grow, prices continue to fall, and shares of global energy from renewables continue to increase. Government policies are the main driver behind renewable energy's meteoric growth. Still, the world is tapping only a small amount of the vast supply of renewable energy resources. There is broad consensus that the role of these resources should be expanded significantly in order to meaningfully address energy security, energy access, and climate change.

scholarly journals Multi-Disciplinary and Multi-Scale Assessment of Marine Renewable Energy Structure in a Tidal System

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurore Raoux ◽  
◽  
Ilan Robin ◽  
Jean-Philippe Pezy ◽  
Anne-Claire Bennis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Tidal Energy ◽  
Ecosystem Approach ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Energy Structure ◽  
Marine Renewable Energy

The French coast of the Atlantic and English Channel (EC) is promising for the development of Marine Renewable Energy (MRE), including wind, wave, and tidal stream, due to the high velocity of currents in some parts of the area. This paper, focusing on wind and tidal energy, discusses how the implementation of MRE converters influences biodiversity, and vice versa, through biofouling and reef effects. The understanding of these interactions requires the knowledge of the hydro-sedimentary conditions and the macrofauna. The research on these topics, performed at the Continental and Coastal Morphodynamic laboratory (M2C) (UNICAEN, France), is presented through a multi-disciplinary approach by i) studying the hydrodynamic conditions and the macrofauna in Alderney Race, ii) studying the biofouling effects on tidal turbines and their influence on the turbulent wake, iii) assessing the hydro-sedimentary impacts induced by the offshore wind farm, like scouring, and iv) taking an ecosystem approach on MRE, such as the reef effect. From an ecological perspective, the reef effect can be responsible for changes in the structure and function of the ecosystem. Although several studies have analyzed this effect at the species-or community-scale, the propagation of the reef effect at the ecosystem-scale remains unclear. Thus, understanding these ecosystem-scale effects is urgent for future research. From an engineering perspective, biofouling changes the structural characteristics (i.e., supplementary mass) of the converters and thus, affects their performance.

scholarly journals Place Attachment in Land Use Changes: A Phenomenological Investigation in Residents’ Lived Experiences with a Renewable Energy Project Deployment

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8856
Author(s):  
Samiha Mjahed Hammami ◽  
Heyam Abdulrahman Al Moosa
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Place Attachment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Low Carbon Energy

Despite growing interest in issues of place attachment and land use changes, scholars of renewable energy have tended to overlook the ways that people–place relations affect local acceptance/opposition of renewable energy projects. We address this gap drawing on the concept of customer experience to capture the meaning of place attachment in a specific context of climate change adaptation (e.g., proposals to site large-scale low-carbon energy technologies such as wind farms) and deepening understanding of the role of place attachment in shaping community responses to the local siting of renewable energy technologies. This research adopts a phenomenological approach that focuses on the narrators’ impressions of their experience with the local place where they live (a village in Northeast Tunisia) as well as the meanings they attribute to the project. Results show that according to the evaluation of change, whether the renewable energy project enhances or disrupts the different aspects of place experience, residents will exhibit respectively either positive or negative emotions and attitudes and will take action accordingly either by supporting or protesting the project.

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