Abstract
The marine renewable energy (MRE) industry has seen an increase in deployments over the past 10 years, particularly in Europe. However, other areas of the globe are still in the beginning stages of MRE development including the Americas. A small number of devices have been deployed in Canada and the United States, while South and Central America have seen very few if any devices in the water [1]–[4]. Without deployments and associated environmental monitoring, uncertainty around MRE remains, particularly regarding environmental effects. Potential environmental effects from tidal and wave devices are of concern to regulators, advisors, and other stakeholders in many nations. Monitoring results from early deployments and the first commercial arrays, coupled with targeted research studies, are providing a growing base of knowledge of how components of tidal turbines and wave energy converters might interact with marine animals and habitats. Efforts are underway to organize and direct these findings towards facilitating consenting that allays concerns and allows the MRE industry to move forward. Evidence to date shows that some of these potential risks are expected to be minimal or non-existent, especially for small numbers of operational devices [1], [5]. Understanding these risks can aid environmental consenting of MRE devices.
The OES-Environmental international initiative aims to address uncertainty around environmental effects of MRE and aid the development of the MRE industry in a responsible manner. Despite a growing knowledge base and extensive ongoing environmental monitoring and data collection, barriers to consenting and deploying projects remain [6]. In addition, data collected by scientists may not be presented in a way that is accessible to regulators, advisors, and developers and the datasets are not always publicly available. Making this information accessible so that it is relevant across MRE projects, as well as easy to interpret, is key for industry-wide progress. OES-Environmental has worked to forge these connections and develop regulatory guidance documents to move the industry forward in an environmentally responsible manner.
To do so, OES-Environmental developed a risk retirement process to synthesize available information on key stressor-receptor interactions [1], [7] and identify which risks may be ripe for retirement. In addition, scientific evidence bases have been compiled for several key environmental interactions from MRE devices, organized around stressors (portions of MRE systems that may cause injury or stress to the marine ecosystem), and receptors (the animals, habitats, and ecosystem processes that may be affected).