Investing in our common future

Co-financed with the support of the European Union ERDF – Atlantic Area Programme

MAREN ProjectWhat? Who? Why? What next?

Atlantic Area Marine Economy Conference, MalahideFebruary 7th 2012

Co-financed with the support of the European Union ERDF – Atlantic Area ProgrammeInvesting in our common future

What & Who is MAREN?

Overview of MAREN:Modelling of marine renewable energy potential and impact across the Atlantic AreaThe project is co-financed with the support of the EU Interreg Atlantic Area Programme, bringing a wide range of technological expertise. The work is ongoing and runs until 2012 (2013).

MAREN TEAM•Cardiff - Tidal Barrages & Impoundments: Dr Bettina Bockelmann–Evans, Prof. Roger Falconer, Dr Reza Ahmadian •National University of Ireland, Galway - Tidal Stream: Dr Michael Hartnett •IHC - University of Cantabria, Spain - Offshore Wind: Prof. Inigo Losada•Centec, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Portugal - Wave: Prof. Carlos Guedes Soares •Ifremer, France - La Rance Barrage: Dr Nicolas Desroy•Other partners - Policy makers, private & public sectors

Why?

“Optimising the energy extraction potential of the marine resource whilst minimising the negative hydro-environmental impact across the Atlantic

Area”

MAREN Project OverviewThe MAREN Project investigates the marine renewable energy forms of:- offshore wind,

tidal current, tidal barrages and lagoons, and wave, in the Atlantic Area to produce:

1.  Country Modelling Case Studies •         High resolution modelling and mapping of the resource potential •         Assessment of marine renewable energy device performance •         Assessment of the Environmental Impact •         Future climate change scenarios – for resource, impacts and design

requirements •         Carbon emission life-cycle analysis

2. Comparative analysis of EIA and SEA protocol across the Atlantic corridor

UK Case Studies (& proposals)RE Type Location Study Type

Wave Cornwall Energy Potential

Severn Estuary

Pembrokeshire (St Annes Head to Ramsey Sound)

Tidal Stream

Severn Estuary Energy Potential

?Ramsey Sound

Tidal Barrage

Severn Estuary- Cardiff Western Barrage

Energy PotentialEnvironmental Impact

Fleming Lagoon

Llanelli- Loughor Barrage

RE Type Location Study Type

Tidal Impoundment

Rhyl, N. Wales Energy PotentialEnvironmental Impact

?Bridgewater Energy Potential

?Swansea Energy PotentialEnvironmental Impact

Offshore Wind

?Severn Estuary

Energy Potential

Atlantic Area Climate Change Impact on design

Tidal Barrage & Impoundment StudiesHydro-environmental modelling: The Severn Barrage under different generation modes – resource and impact The North Wales tidal lagoons – resource and impact including coastal flooding Energy harbours along the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel

Proposals: Bridgewater Lagoon - resource potential and hydro-environmental impact Loughor Barrage - resource potential, hydro-environmental and economic impact modelling

Other ideas to work from existing modelling capabilities of: Energy assessment Water quality Water speed Flood risk Pathogens Fish habitat modelling

With Barrage Without Barrage

Maximum Flow Predictions

Maximum Velocit y(m/s)

Tenby

Cardiff

Minehead

Weston

Ilfracombe

Barry

Swansea

Gloucester

Newport

BristolAvonmouth

N 0.3 0.7 1 1.3 1.7 2

Frame 001 05 Nov 2009 Maximum Water Level

With Barrage Without Barrage

Spring Tide- Mean Flood

Modelling Suspended Sediments

With Barrage Without Barrage

Spring Tide- Mean Flood

Modelling Faecal Bacteria Levels with SS - FB Interaction & Turbidity Impact on decay rate

Offshore WindIH Cantabria, Spain

The aim of their work is two-fold: • To present two novel wind and wave re-analysis databases to be used for wind farm

offshore applications.• To describe a corrective method using instrumental observations.

These tools provide marine climate information for addressing issues about optimal design for offshore wind farms, such as:- optimal location, operation and maintenance strategies, etc.

New Methods used: SeaWind and GOW 2.1 databases provide 21 years continuous long time series of wind and wave climate on a high resolution grid, which can be used for off-shore wind farm planning and design. Both SeaWind and GOW databases have been corrected using a parametric calibration method based on nonlinear regression

These models are being used to identify key sites in the Atlantic Area based on resource potential:

• Pilot study in each area – Severn, Shannon, W. France - Brest, Spain Santander, and Portugal offshore Lisbon

Further work: Models for each site need higher resolution validation data

Tidal Stream StudiesHydro-environmental modelling: The Shannon Estuary (Ireland) – resource and impact The Severn Estuary (UK) – resource and impact La Rance (France) - impact

Proposals: Shannon Estuary – resource potential and hydro environmental impact Severn Estuary – resource potential and hydro environmental impact

Other ideas to work from existing modelling capabilities of: Energy assessment Changes to hydrodynamic regimes Tidal ellipse analysis Climate impacts – especially flooding Multi-scale modelling: Cylindrical coordinates; Rotated/nested grids

WaveIST, University of Lisbon, Portugal

Work to date:

A wave prediction system based on two state-of-the-art spectral models, WAVEWATCH III ™ and SWAN, was implemented in order to evaluate UK’s wave conditions and to assess potential wave energy extraction.

Case Studies:• Wave Hub test site, Cornwall• Pembrokeshire Coast

Validation tests are carried out with buoy data from the British Oceanographic Data Centre so that the model's performance can be evaluated.

Further work: Refinement of the calibration with higher resolution data sets.

Paper available on request.

PURPOSE: Research is only as good as the people and environment it can help. MAREN strives to involve stakeholders to

produce useful outputs with the research.

ENGAGEMENT EVENTS:

•MAREN Initiation Meeting in North Wales, Feb 2010•SEP Annual Event, Bristol, Aug 2010

•MAREN Project Meeting in Lisbon, Sep 2010•MEP Annual Event, Pembrokeshire, Mar 2011

•MAREN sub meeting at the OCEANS conference, Santander, Jun 2011

•MEP Working Group Meeting, Aug 2011•MAREN-ICE Business Breakfast Meeting, Cardiff, Sep 2011

•SEP Annual Event, Cardiff, Sep 2011

Stakeholder Engagement Work

Outputs Resource Maps and summary notes

Marine Renewable Energy Project Database

EIA and SEA summary

Online GIS tool

Partnership development • Between partners• Between partners and stakeholders• Between stakeholders

Reports, Publications and articles in specialised magazines

Challenges for Marine Renewable Energies in the

Atlantic Area

• Testing facilities• Political will

• Joined up thinking• Stakeholder linkages

• Accessible information for all• Marine Mammal impact understanding

Thank youAny questions?