Ocean Energy Specialisation 0 OER and EPE & assignments The following text describes the assignments for the OER and EPE & modules. The assignment intends to provide the students with an opportunity to deepen the understanding of the contents of the theoretical lectures. It will include the description of: a) an ocean habitat, b) a Marine Spatial Planning, c) an Economic and Environmental Planning and d) an assessment of the feed-in tariff to turn economically attractive a given ocean energy farm. The work is to be done individually by the students except in part b) MSP exercise. The students are provided with the information contained in Annex, which includes spatial information for a given island (the Spanish island Gran Canaria, see Fig. ): Bathymetry Composition of superficial seabed sediments Wave, wind, currents and tidal resources Infrastructures (e.g. power substations, ports) Maritime routes Leisure areas Marine Protected Areas Roads Fisheries intensity. Fig. Location of the study area: Gran Canaria.
a) Ocean habitat characterization The characterisation of the ocean habitat and species of given project location is critical to evaluate the project potential effects (positive and negative) on the marine environment. In general, habitat and biodiversity are closely linked and "habitat" incorporates all aspects of physical and chemical constituents (abiotic factors) along with the biological interactions (biotic factors). The habitat quality evaluation can be accomplished by characterizing selected physicochemical parameters and their interaction with species survivability and welfare. Marine protected areas, like any protected area, are regions in which human activity has been placed under some restrictions in the interest of conserving the natural environment, its surrounding waters and the occupant ecosystems, and any cultural or historical resources that may require preservation or management. Marine protected areas' boundaries will include some area of ocean, even if it is only a small fraction of the total area of the territory. Natural or historic marine resources are protected by local, state, territorial, native, regional, or national authorities and may differ substantially from nation to nation. This variation includes different limitations on development, fishing practices, fishing seasons and catch limits, moorings, bans on removing or disrupting marine life of any kind. Although a main rule for the mitigation of marine environment impacts is to site marine projects away from environmentally protected / sensitive areas, but as a matter of convenience in terms of physico-chemical and biological data availability, the proposed exercise aims to exercise the ability of identifying and characterising the key environmental issues of a given Marine Protected Area (MPA). For this purpose seven MPA identified below have been selected in the study area (Fig. ) and are presented in Table. The topics for the ocean habitat characterisation of each area are: MPA legal context: describe all legal protected designations of the area (there are several for some of them) Type (according to the European Habitats Directive) and importance of protected habitats Protected flora and/or fauna species and conservation status information Description of the key physicochemical conditions in the area Identification of the main anthropogenic uses in the area and discussion of their general influence on protected habitat / species conservation. The needed information for each habitat characterisation is available from the internet and the following links are suggested: Repository of integrated marine data of canary islands (Webgis): http://www.redmic.es/flexviewers/visor/ Description of Canary MPAs: http://www.figurasdeprotecciondegrancanaria.es/index.php?pagina=inicio Important Bird Areas of the Canary islands: http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/ebafactsheet.php?id=
Table Marine Protected Areas for ocean habitat characterisation. Marine Protected Name Area (km ) Students Areas ES000 Área marina de la Isletta A ES000 Franja marina de Mogán B ES000 Sebadales de Güigüí C ES000 Sebadales de playa del Inglés D ES000 Costa de Sardina del Norte E ES000 Bahía de Gando F ES000 Bahía del Confital F ES000 Praya del Cábron G b) Maritime Spatial Planning exercise It is common knowledge that global terrestrial resources are approaching their physical limits. Ongoing population growth, technological change and shifting consumer demands, in particular in more well-off and developed countries, have considerably boosted the need for food, energy and trade. As a consequence, ocean space has been increasingly considered as a resort for a number of vital resources of modern society. In recent years, existing activities, such as fisheries, shipping, dredging and oil exploitation, have rapidly expanded, while relatively new uses including recreation, mineral extraction, and, more recently, offshore renewable energies and offshore marine aquaculture, have started to claim their own share in the marine environment. Recent studies effectively reveal that the total claim for ocean space in certain regions is practically three times the available amount. Naturally, since resources are limited in space, the additional demand for ocean as economic space inevitably leads to competition between users and interest groups, potentially resulting in environmental loading and ultimately causing loss of marine biodiversity, which, in turn, threats the health of the oceans as a whole. Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) has been widely implemented on a European scale to prevent conflicts and allow for coordinated ocean exploitation, at the same time assuring its ecological integrity. MSP is an essential tool for managing and regulating all human uses of the sea, while protecting marine ecosystems. It focuses on marine waters under national jurisdiction and is concerned only with planning activities at sea, not covering management of coastal zones or spatial planning of sea-land interface. The key factor of MSP is to prospect uses and priorities so as to accommodate an optimal configuration of all activities by reducing ocean space usage for area-demanding applications and exploring potential synergies. MSP thus aims to balance frequently competing sectorbased interests, ensuring that i) marine space and resources are used efficiently and sustainably, ii) decisions are taken based on sound data and in-depth knowledge of the sea, and that iii) investors have greater legal certainty and confidence, encouraging economic development.
The proposed exercise consists in establishing a MSP for the case study area of Fig. (and Annex I). More specifically, the exercise consists in elaborating a plan establishing, for each square segment, the optimal configuration (minimizing conflicts and maximizing synergies) of the following ocean economic activities:. Offshore wind energy. Wave energy. Tidal stream energy. Fisheries. Fish aquaculture. Algae aquaculture. Maritime leisure The MSP plan must take into consideration the constraints indicated in relation to protected areas, maritime routes, landscape areas, etc. More than one activity per square segment is allowed. Each student will assume to lobby for one of the areas of activity and an agreement between the seven students (Soraya included) must be reached. Janete will take the role of the Public Administration and will have a final decision. Additional information may be requested to the Public Administration (Janete) by the lobbyists. c) Economic and Environment Strategic Planning An economic and environmental strategic planning is a further step to MSP as it leads to establishing a plan for concession areas for economic activities, in particular for maritime renewable energy, fish-farming and macro-algae production. This exercise must be in accordance with the MSP and optimize the social benefit for the population of the island (job creation and economic return). Some constraints are imposed, namely:. A minimum level of fishery so that the assumed existing.000 jobs is kept;. A minimum annual fish aquaculture production level of 0.000 metric tons;. A minimum algae aquaculture production level of.000 tons;. A minimum annual electricity production from marine renewable sources of TWh. This exercise is to be done by each student individually. The mark will be given by comparing the different alternative solutions. Reference values for fish catch, fish and algae aquaculture production and marine renewable energy are given in the ocean economy lecture. If this information is not enough students are free to use further reference values taken from the internet or the literature. In this case the sources of information must be provided. The conclusion of the study should be the identification of the areas to be open for concession (size and location) for the activities you think should be developed, estimated economic return, estimated rents for the local government and estimated job creation.
d) Assessment of an attractive feed-in tariff for MRE Based on the CAPEX and OPEX data for wind, wave and tidal energy to be provided in the EPE course and on the wind, wave and tidal resources from Annex, each student will make an assessment of the level of feed-in tariff requested for economic feasibility of one 0 MW farm of a technology in an area that he will choose from the ones he selected in the EESP for that particular technology. The distribution of the technologies by the students is to be made by Alex Raventos (EPE).
Annex I Supporting material for the assignment development Please note that for the purpose of the assignment development, and due to the lack of needed information, some data have been produced and/or modified and thus do not correspond to real conditions. The following maps are provided: MAP : Bathymetry MAP : Composition of superficial seabed sediments MAPS to : Wave, wind and currents resources (for the calculation of ocean currents energy please see the procedure below) MAP : Infrastructures, maritime routes, leisure areas and Marine Protected Areas MAP : Roads MAP : Fisheries intensity Calculation of the ocean current energy resource The kinetic energy per unit volume of a fluid parcel moving with velocity u is: Ek u and the energy flux through a section of unit area perpendicular to the fluid flow is: P E u u k Subsequently, the instantaneous power density of a flowing fluid incident on an ocean current turbine with cross sectional-area A may be assumed to be P Au Although this equation is widely used to assess the theoretically available ocean current energy resource, it does not consider the reduction of the incoming flow rate due to energy extraction. For this reason, the approach has been criticized by several authors. More detailed methodologies to assess ocean currents and tidal stream energy resources will be discussed in the course of the OER module.
MAP : Bathymetry
MAP : Composition of superficial seabed sediments Gran Canaria
MAP : Wave power Gran Canaria
MAP : Wind power Gran Canaria 0
MAP : Currents Gran Canaria
MAP : Infrastructures, maritime routes, leisure areas and Marine Protected Areas Gran Canaria
MAP : Roads
MAP : Fisheries intensity Gran Canaria