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Marine EnergyA Tidal-Powered, Real Time Passive Acoustic Sentinel System for Marine Mammal Alerts to Navigation in the Puget Sound Area
Lead Companies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lead Researcher (s)
- Alicia Amerson
Technology Application
Marine Energy
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Environmental Impact
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
Conventional HydroBasin-Scale Opportunity Assessment Initiative: Background Literature Review
Lead Companies
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Lead Researcher (s)
- Bo Saulsbury
As called for in the March 2010 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Hydropower, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), environmental stakeholders, and the hydropower industry are collaborating to identify opportunities to simultaneously increase electricity generation and improve environmental services in river basins of the United States. New analytical tools provide an improved ability to understand, model, and visualize environmental and hydropower systems. Efficiencies and opportunities that might not be apparent in site-by-site analyses can be revealed through assessments at the river-basin scale. Information from basin-scale assessments could lead to better coordination of existing hydropower projects, or to inform siting decisions (e.g., balancing the removal of some dams with the construction of others), in order to meet renewable energy production and environmental goals. Basin-scale opportunity assessments would inform energy and environmental planning and address the cumulative effects of hydropower development and operations on river basin environmental quality in a way that quantifies energy-environment tradeoffs. Opportunity assessments would create information products, develop scenarios, and identify specific actions that agencies, developers, and stakeholders can take to locate new sustainable hydropower projects, increase the efficiency and environmental performance of existing projects, and restore and protect environmental quality in our nation's river basins. Government agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGO) have done significant work to understand and assess opportunities for both hydropower and environmental protection at the basin scale. Some initiatives have been successful, others less so, and there is a need to better understand the legacy of work on which this current project can build. This background literature review is intended to promote that understanding.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Regulatory Management Process
Research Sub-Category
Environmental Impact
Status
complete
Completion Date
2010
- Marine Energy
Choose Your Own Collision Risk Adventure
Lead Companies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lead Researcher (s)
- Lysel Garavelli
- Lenaïg Hemery
This project aims to develop an interactive outreach tool for the marine energy community and the general public, highlighting the different stages of collision risk at various spatial scales and featuring fish.
Technology Application
Marine Energy
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Environmental Impact
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Marine Energy
Co-Locating Wave Energy with an Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture System
Lead Companies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lead Researcher (s)
- Lysel Garavelli
- Mikaela Freeman
- Molly Grear
This project will characterize the environment and wave resource around a proposed wave energy and aquaculture development site off Puerto Rico; evaluate the suitability of co-location; provide an initial assessment of the potential for wave energy to power an integrated multi-trophic aquaculture system; and develop a demonstration project plan and associated road map for implementation.
Technology Application
Marine Energy
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Environmental Impact
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
Environmental Decision Support: Science-Based Tools for Hydropower Stakeholder Collaboration
Lead Companies
DOE, WPTO
Lead Researcher (s)
- Esther Parish
Addressing environmental impacts while balancing multiple uses for water has been a longstanding challenge for hydropower, particularly when there is lack of access to information necessary to support decision-making. Therefore, ORNL has been working with a cross-section of hydropower stakeholders represented by members of the project’s Mission Advisory Board (MAB) and Science Advisory Board (SAB) to develop and refine an Environmental Decision Support (EDS) toolkit that can help interested users to prepare for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licensing negotiations by identifying what existing information and data are available to support environmental impact assessments, which issues have project nexus, and which environmental issues might require more discussion and/or additional research. The final EDS toolkit will include a science-based River Function Indicator (RFI) Questionnaire tool and user guide, a set of key river function and terminology definitions, the database of environmental metrics that was used to develop the list of 42 RFIs in 6 categories, and a retrospective analysis of environmental studies requested and implemented during 29 nonfederal hydropower licensing processes. The EDS toolkit will be made available to the public through DOE’s HydroSource website to help stakeholders identify the key metrics of environmental sustainability for their hydropower projects so that they can work together to develop strategies that avoid, minimize, or mitigate impacts to the riverine ecosystem. Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Environmental Impact
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
Environmental, Economic and Social Trade-Offs of Hydropower Relicensing: A Case Study of the Yuba River Development Project
Lead Companies
University of California, Berkely
Lead Researcher (s)
- Joseph Rand
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Regulatory Management Process
Research Sub-Category
Environmental Impact
Status
complete
Completion Date
2018
- Marine Energy
Evaluating Potential for Impacts from Seal Collisions with Tidal Turbines
Lead Companies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lead Researcher (s)
- Andrea Copping
While no collisions between marine mammals and tidal turbines have been observed, regulators continue to have concerns about potential impacts. Addressing these concerns can improve project permitting timeframes and reduce costs to developers. This project investigated the risk to marine mammals, including the consequences to the animal of a collision and the likelihood of a collision happening. Specifically, project researchers estimated the biomechanical properties of the skin and underlying tissues (in addition to the morphology and mass) of harbor seals; modeled the mechanics and forces associated with collision and assessed the consequences to tissues and the general physiological state of the harbor seal struck by a tidal turbine blade; and utilized information on the behavior of harbor seals in tidal waters and around tidal turbines to determine the risk of collision with a turbine blade.
Technology Application
Marine Energy
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Environmental Impact
Status
complete
Completion Date
2017
- Marine Energy
Intelligent Adaptable Monitoring Package for Marine Renewable Energy Projects
Lead Companies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lead Researcher (s)
- Shari Matzner
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will support a technical evaluation of the Intelligent Adaptable Monitoring Package (iAMP) instrumentation package developed by the University of Washington. The evaluation will take place at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Marine Sciences Laboratory, where the instrumentation package will be deployed for an extended endurance test. During the endurance test, the performance will be evaluated using controlled, synthetic targets (drifting instrumented buoys) and naturally occurring marine biota.
Technology Application
Marine Energy
Research Category
Technology
Research Sub-Category
Environmental Impact
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Marine Energy
Smart Node – A Highly Adaptable Passive Acoustic Receiver System
Lead Companies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lead Researcher (s)
- Daniel Deng
Technology Application
Marine Energy
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Environmental Impact
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
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