The State of Knowledge for Environmental Effects

In January 2018 Annex IV published a report The State of Knowledge for Environmental Effects. Annex IV was established in January 2010 as a task under the International Energy Agency Ocean Energy Systems Technology Collaboration Programme (OES) to examine the environmental effects of ocean energy (OE) development.

This paper describes the state of knowledge that drives the consenting (permitting) processes for the ocean energy industry in most of the Ocean Energy Systems Technology Collaboration Programme (OES) nations, and how that level of knowledge is, or is not, driving the processes for consenting projects and moving the industry forward. This paper attempts to summarize the current status and suggest pathways for moving the industry forward through efficient consenting processes.

The study concludes that based on the current level of understanding of the interactions of wave or tidal devices with the marine environment, the risks for deployment and operation of single devices appear to be very low. Very small arrays of wave devices may also present low risks. However, the remaining uncertainties associated with commercial arrays will require investigation as the larger arrays come online.