Abstract
Presently, marine energy (ME) deployments are absorbing unsustainable costs and timelines associated with planning and permitting to get projects in the water (up to 25% of total project cost, which is more than double comparable offshore energy projects at approximately 10% of total project costs; Kramer et al. 2020; Peplinski et al. 2021). To overcome this challenge, the Spatial Environmental Assessment Toolkit (SEAT) is in development to provide the highest-quality site characterization and a priori understanding of the potential environmental impacts using numerical modeling tools and available site data to reduce uncertainty. Reduced uncertainty equates to a reduction in resources required for planning and environmental permitting and a more streamlined path to realized commercial-scale projects.
In this work, numerical modeling and mapping tools are linked together within SEAT to assess ecosystem impacts due to marine energy installations and evaluate optimal ME array layouts based on meaningful site and ME device physics. Of utmost importance is the ability of ME developers, regulators, and stakeholders to develop ME array layouts that maximize energy production, support environmental benefits and Powering the Blue Economy applications (e.g., coastal resiliency, desalination), and minimize potential undesirable environmental effects.
The SEAT is an open-source graphical user interface (GUI) that aggregates numerical model results and spatial receptor data to evaluate the potential risk of change and subsequent impact on the environment being developed for ME. The numerical models can represent the presence of wave, tidal, or river energy converters in their respective environments and evaluate device and array generated site changes in hydrodynamics (e.g., wave fields, water currents), sediment and larval dynamics (e.g., benthic, spawning habitats), and propagation of new acoustic signals (e.g., hearing thresholds).
The toolkit of linked models and site-specific receptors will ultimately allow developers to determine optimal designs for MRE deployments that maximize power performance and benefits from changes that promote project resiliency while minimizing the potential for unwanted environmental effects. The SEAT is an integrated communication tool with which regulatory agencies, stakeholders, and industry developers can effectively evaluate the complex information required for the permitting process thereby reducing the time and costs associated with the process.