Confluence of technological, ecological and social factors create synergies and tradeoffs for offshore renewables
Abstract
Ensemble modeling results suggest a sizeable global potential for offshore renewable energy systems, especially in meeting future energy demands. We posit that a confluence of technological, ecological, and social factors could act as barriers or enablers of offshore renewables.
Technologically, these energy sources are unable to provide consistent energy flow. Supplementing variable sources like offshore wind with wave energy could provide output power smoothing and reduced downtime. Ecologically, there are constraints to deployable regions if they fall within zones of high risks for marine species. Socially, the implementation of such renewable energy systems requires public support. This study aims to explore these factors and assess the geospatial attractiveness of offshore wave and wind systems. A geospatial framework was created for the U.S. by overlaying technological, ecological, and social layers to identify priority areas with high multi-criteria viability. Annual offshore wind and wave power density and water depth data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) characterized technological feasibility. Marine protected areas identified sites where resource extraction is prohibited. Public support of renewable energy sources from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCC) provided the social viability metric. The data reveal promising viability along the East and West Coasts of the U.S., while the Gulf Coast exhibits less favorable conditions. Along the East Coast, favorability is primarily driven by wind resources, public support, and a broad continental shelf. While the West Coast shows strong wave and wind resource potential, water depths pose additional technological and economic challenges. Based on these results, ongoing work will focus on making specific recommendations for a novel contextually-explicit framework that captures these features and assesses the favorability of offshore renewables for site selection.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMGC126..06L
- Keywords:
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- 1610 Atmosphere;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1630 Impacts of global change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE