TeraWatt: Large scale Interactive coupled 3D modelling for wave and tidal energy resource and environmental impact (Remit 1 MASTS Consortium Proposal)

Scotland has substantial wave and tidal energy resources and is at the forefront of the development of marine renewable technologies and ocean energy exploitation. The next phase will see these wave and tidal devices deployed in arrays, with many sites being developed. Although developers have entered into agreements with The Crown Estate for seabed leases, all projects remain subject to licensing requirements under the Marine Scotland Act (2010).
As part of the licensing arrangements, environmental effects in the immediate vicinity of devices and arrays will be addressed in the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) process that each developer must undertake. It is essential, however, that the regulatory authorities understand how a number of multi-site developments collectively impact on the physical and biological processes over a wider region, both in relation to cumulative effects of the developments and marine planning responsibilities. At a regional scale, careful selection of sites may enable the optimum exploitation of the resource while minimising any environmental impacts to an acceptable level.
The TeraWatt Consortium has been established through the auspices of The Marine Alliance for Science & Technology for Scotland (MASTS) with Heriot-Watt University, and the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Strathclyde, the Highlands and Islands and Marine Scotland Science (MSS). The consortium has the support and anticipates the full engagement of the marine renewable developers in many aspects of the work. The research programme has been designed to specifically respond to questions posed by Marine Scotland Science, the organisation responsible for providing scientific advice to the licensing authority. In particular to the following questions: (1) What is the best way to assess the wave and tidal resource and the effects of energy extraction on it? (2) What are the physical consequences of wave and tidal energy extraction? (3) What are the ecological consequences of wave and tidal energy extraction? The overarching objective of the research is to generate a suite of methodologies that can provide better understandings of, and be used to assess, the alteration of the resource from energy extraction, and of the physical and ecological consequence. Illustration of the use of these in key development area, such as the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters, and their availability as tools will enable the acceleration of array deployments.
The TeraWatt research programme is structured in 4 workstreams. The first, led by MSS, will collate all necessary data to be used, develop the hypothetical multi-site array configurations in conjunction with developers and evaluate acceptance criteria for impacts. The second led by Edinburgh University will use separate and coupled models of wave and tide at a resolution necessary to consider multi-site array effects on the resource, providing important inputs to workstreams 3 and 4 which will address in turn, the spatial changes in physical processes affecting sediments, the shoreline and seabed (led by Glasgow and Strathclyde), and the spatial changes affecting organisms living in the seabed, their distribution and the significance of these for other ecological processes (led by Heriot-Watt University). Each workstream will provide reviews of the methodologies used which will be synthesised into a single methods toolbox. Where possible all regional scale modelling, used to illustrate these methodologies, will be validated by field data and the consortium has assembled both existing and data not previously available, for this purpose with the support of MSS and marine renewable developers.
The TeraWatt project, which will be managed by MASTS, envisages direct participation from industry in various aspects of its work, and has a number of wider knowledge exchange and stakeholder engagement activities planned.

TeraWatt will provide answers to specific marine planning and consenting questions faced by the regulatory authorities. These are critical to accelerating the licensing of multi-site arrays and hence, by enabling this next crucial phase in the exploitation of marine renewable resources, will contribute to maintaining the UK lead in the development of wave and tidal technologies. Deliverables from the project will be pivotal in assisting regulators to determine arrangements for the optimal exploitation of the resource while at the same time ensuring minimal environmental impacts. Its positive economic and social impacts in providing timely solutions to these questions are significant.

Marine Scotland Science, the organisation responsible for providing scientific advice to the regulator on planning and consenting matters, in waters where the first major multi-site deployments will occur, is a project partner in TeraWatt. It will lead, throughout the research, the engagements with the device and field developers, which are necessary to ensuring confidence in the outputs of the work for both industry and regulator. This partnership, and the necessary engagements, with developers are embedded in TeraWatt to ensure that deliverables meet the requirements of the sector and can be immediately exploited.

Accelerating the licensing of multi-site wave and tidal developments will help the UK maintain its place at the leading edge of marine energy technology and developments, and this will result in strong socio-economic impacts in areas related to research and development, design engineering, manufacturing and construction. Developments will be de-risked by the enhancing our ability to predicting the resource impact of energy extraction, assisting investors in supporting and building the finance case for large scale developments. Socio-economic benefits will be evident at a community level by providing skilled employment as a result of accelerated developments, up to regional, national and international level by increasing the UK share of renewables, and thus low carbon, energy production capacity. Direct beneficiaries of this research activity include the regulatory authorities, the Crown Estate (responsible for seabed leasing), device and field developers, and investors associated with field development financing.

Associated with the accelerated development of the sector, are secondary economic benefits which will come from upgrades to the electricity network, enhanced opportunities in technology manufacturing, and regional benefits from upgrades to port and harbour facilities, and related service sector activity, all likely to arise as the result of this growth.

The expertise and capacity developed from the research will assist in the integration of science into the marine planning process, and will benefit more generally the knowledge economy now emerging around marine renewable planning, strategic environmental assessment, and the ecosystem approach to the management of European seas.



The project will also generate new knowledge and advances in methodologies, both in innovation and application, of value not only to the sector but to a wider research community in fields ranging from hydrodynamic modeling to marine ecology and conservation. In particular, the inter-disciplinary fine scale regional modelling approach adopted, using existing and new physical and biological data (previously unavailable at this resolution) will enable the development of innovative methods for the determination and understanding of the influence of wave and tidal kinematics, on sediment processes and on the marine biota, its benthic differentiation and distribution, and provide predictive tools that can be much more widely used by researchers and government advisors working in the fields of marine conservation, and in particular in support of the anticipated establishment of marine protected areas.