IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v80y2017icp648-662.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A review of the current understanding of the hydro-environmental impacts of energy removal by tidal turbines

Author

Listed:
  • Nash, S.
  • Phoenix, A.

Abstract

Tidal current turbines have the potential to make a considerable contribution to renewable energy supplies. However, the potential for utility-scale deployments will depend not only on the economics of power generation, but also on the likely hydro-environmental effects of deployments. These may include physical, acoustic, chemical, and electromagnetic effects but the effects of energy removal are considered most significant. This paper presents a review of the available published literature on the hydro-environmental effects of energy removal of tidal turbines. Given the limited number of ocean deployments of turbines to date, the relevant literature mostly comprises laboratory studies of singular scaled turbines and CFD model studies of multiple device arrays. The review finds that the hydrodynamic impacts of singular devices are relatively well understood and that it is generally accepted that the far-field effects of singular device deployments, and even small arrays, will be negligible. In contrast, large arrays have the potential to affect much greater changes in their far-field environments with the research showing potential for large reductions in current velocities inside, and upstream and downstream, of the array, and consequential impacts on mixing, mass transport and primary production. The review focused on those studies that attempted to quantify the magnitudes of any energy removal effects. As might be expected, the reported magnitudes of effects varied widely but there is a strong positive correlation with the level of energy removal. Indeed, the literature indicates that for most suitable deployment sites there exists a safe level of energy removal that would be both economical and environmentally sustainable. The authors recommend the application of combined hydrodynamic-biogeochemical models on a site-by-site basis to help determine the significance of any hydrodynamic impacts and therefore the appropriate sustainable levels of energy removal.

Suggested Citation

  • Nash, S. & Phoenix, A., 2017. "A review of the current understanding of the hydro-environmental impacts of energy removal by tidal turbines," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 648-662.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:80:y:2017:i:c:p:648-662
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.289
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032117309346
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.289?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ramos, V. & Carballo, R. & Álvarez, M. & Sánchez, M. & Iglesias, G., 2013. "Assessment of the impacts of tidal stream energy through high-resolution numerical modeling," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 541-554.
    2. Ian Masters & Alison Williams & T. Nick Croft & Michael Togneri & Matt Edmunds & Enayatollah Zangiabadi & Iain Fairley & Harshinie Karunarathna, 2015. "A Comparison of Numerical Modelling Techniques for Tidal Stream Turbine Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Thiébot, Jérôme & Bailly du Bois, Pascal & Guillou, Sylvain, 2015. "Numerical modeling of the effect of tidal stream turbines on the hydrodynamics and the sediment transport – Application to the Alderney Race (Raz Blanchard), France," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 356-365.
    4. Sun, X. & Chick, J.P. & Bryden, I.G., 2008. "Laboratory-scale simulation of energy extraction from tidal currents," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1267-1274.
    5. Funke, S.W. & Farrell, P.E. & Piggott, M.D., 2014. "Tidal turbine array optimisation using the adjoint approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 658-673.
    6. Robins, Peter E. & Neill, Simon P. & Lewis, Matt J., 2014. "Impact of tidal-stream arrays in relation to the natural variability of sedimentary processes," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 311-321.
    7. Willis, Miles R. & Broudic, Mérin & Haywood, Charlotte & Masters, Ian & Thomas, Sara, 2013. "Measuring underwater background noise in high tidal flow environments," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 255-258.
    8. Neill, Simon P. & Litt, Emmer J. & Couch, Scott J. & Davies, Alan G., 2009. "The impact of tidal stream turbines on large-scale sediment dynamics," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2803-2812.
    9. Ahmadian, Reza & Falconer, Roger A., 2012. "Assessment of array shape of tidal stream turbines on hydro-environmental impacts and power output," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 318-327.
    10. Stephen Nash & Agnieszka I. Olbert & Michael Hartnett, 2015. "Towards a Low-Cost Modelling System for Optimising the Layout of Tidal Turbine Arrays," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-19, November.
    11. Martin-Short, R. & Hill, J. & Kramer, S.C. & Avdis, A. & Allison, P.A. & Piggott, M.D., 2015. "Tidal resource extraction in the Pentland Firth, UK: Potential impacts on flow regime and sediment transport in the Inner Sound of Stroma," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 596-607.
    12. Ahmadian, Reza & Falconer, Roger & Bockelmann-Evans, Bettina, 2012. "Far-field modelling of the hydro-environmental impact of tidal stream turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 107-116.
    13. Myers, L. & Bahaj, A.S., 2005. "Simulated electrical power potential harnessed by marine current turbine arrays in the Alderney Race," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 1713-1731.
    14. Fallon, D. & Hartnett, M. & Olbert, A. & Nash, S., 2014. "The effects of array configuration on the hydro-environmental impacts of tidal turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 10-25.
    15. Bryden, Ian G. & Couch, Scott J., 2006. "ME1—marine energy extraction: tidal resource analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 133-139.
    16. Plew, David R. & Stevens, Craig L., 2013. "Numerical modelling of the effect of turbines on currents in a tidal channel – Tory Channel, New Zealand," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 269-282.
    17. Philip A. Gillibrand & Roy A. Walters & Jason McIlvenny, 2016. "Numerical Simulations of the Effects of a Tidal Turbine Array on Near-Bed Velocity and Local Bed Shear Stress," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-22, October.
    18. Neill, Simon P. & Jordan, James R. & Couch, Scott J., 2012. "Impact of tidal energy converter (TEC) arrays on the dynamics of headland sand banks," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 387-397.
    19. Myers, L.E. & Bahaj, A.S., 2012. "An experimental investigation simulating flow effects in first generation marine current energy converter arrays," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 28-36.
    20. Yang, Zhaoqing & Wang, Taiping & Copping, Andrea E., 2013. "Modeling tidal stream energy extraction and its effects on transport processes in a tidal channel and bay system using a three-dimensional coastal ocean model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 605-613.
    21. Fairley, I. & Masters, I. & Karunarathna, H., 2015. "The cumulative impact of tidal stream turbine arrays on sediment transport in the Pentland Firth," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 755-769.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christelle Auguste & Philip Marsh & Jean-Roch Nader & Remo Cossu & Irene Penesis, 2020. "Towards a Tidal Farm in Banks Strait, Tasmania: Influence of Tidal Array on Hydrodynamics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-22, October.
    2. Lilia Flores Mateos & Michael Hartnett, 2020. "Hydrodynamic Effects of Tidal-Stream Power Extraction for Varying Turbine Operating Conditions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-23, June.
    3. Si, Yulin & Liu, Xiaodong & Wang, Tao & Feng, Bo & Qian, Peng & Ma, Yong & Zhang, Dahai, 2022. "State-of-the-art review and future trends of development of tidal current energy converters in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    4. Chen, Yaling & Lin, Binliang & Sun, Jian & Guo, Jinxi & Wu, Wenlong, 2019. "Hydrodynamic effects of the ratio of rotor diameter to water depth: An experimental study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 331-341.
    5. Christelle Auguste & Philip Marsh & Jean-Roch Nader & Irene Penesis & Remo Cossu, 2021. "Modelling Morphological Changes and Migration of Large Sand Waves in a Very Energetic Tidal Environment: Banks Strait, Australia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-30, July.
    6. Kresning, Boma & Hashemi, M. Reza & Neill, Simon P. & Green, J. A. Mattias & Xue, Huijie, 2019. "The impacts of tidal energy development and sea-level rise in the Gulf of Maine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    7. Musa, Mirko & Hill, Craig & Guala, Michele, 2019. "Interaction between hydrokinetic turbine wakes and sediment dynamics: array performance and geomorphic effects under different siting strategies and sediment transport conditions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 738-753.
    8. Qian, Peng & Feng, Bo & Liu, Hao & Tian, Xiange & Si, Yulin & Zhang, Dahai, 2019. "Review on configuration and control methods of tidal current turbines," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 125-139.
    9. Clemente Gotelli & Mirko Musa & Michele Guala & Cristián Escauriaza, 2019. "Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Wake Interactions of Marine Hydrokinetic Turbines," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-17, August.
    10. Guillou, Nicolas & Thiébot, Jérôme & Chapalain, Georges, 2019. "Turbines’ effects on water renewal within a marine tidal stream energy site," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    11. Li, Huanhuan & Xu, Beibei & Arzaghi, Ehsan & Abbassi, Rouzbeh & Chen, Diyi & Aggidis, George A. & Zhang, Jingjing & Patelli, Edoardo, 2020. "Transient safety assessment and risk mitigation of a hydroelectric generation system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    12. Lin, Jie & Lin, Binliang & Sun, Jian & Chen, Yaling, 2021. "Wake structure and mechanical energy transformation induced by a horizontal axis tidal stream turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 1344-1356.
    13. Liu, Xiaodong & Chen, Zheng & Si, Yulin & Qian, Peng & Wu, He & Cui, Lin & Zhang, Dahai, 2021. "A review of tidal current energy resource assessment in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    14. Auguste, Christelle & Nader, Jean-Roch & Marsh, Philip & Cossu, Remo & Penesis, Irene, 2021. "Variability of sediment processes around a tidal farm in a theoretical channel," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 606-620.
    15. Lilia Flores Mateos & Michael Hartnett, 2019. "Incorporation of a Non-Constant Thrust Force Coefficient to Assess Tidal-Stream Energy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-17, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Deng, Guizhong & Zhang, Zhaoru & Li, Ye & Liu, Hailong & Xu, Wentao & Pan, Yulin, 2020. "Prospective of development of large-scale tidal current turbine array: An example numerical investigation of Zhejiang, China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    2. Li, Xiaorong & Li, Ming & McLelland, Stuart J. & Jordan, Laura-Beth & Simmons, Stephen M. & Amoudry, Laurent O. & Ramirez-Mendoza, Rafael & Thorne, Peter D., 2017. "Modelling tidal stream turbines in a three-dimensional wave-current fully coupled oceanographic model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 297-307.
    3. De Dominicis, Michela & O'Hara Murray, Rory & Wolf, Judith, 2017. "Multi-scale ocean response to a large tidal stream turbine array," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(PB), pages 1160-1179.
    4. Fairley, I. & Masters, I. & Karunarathna, H., 2015. "The cumulative impact of tidal stream turbine arrays on sediment transport in the Pentland Firth," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 755-769.
    5. Marco Piano & Peter E. Robins & Alan G. Davies & Simon P. Neill, 2018. "The Influence of Intra-Array Wake Dynamics on Depth-Averaged Kinetic Tidal Turbine Energy Extraction Simulations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, October.
    6. Guillou, Nicolas & Thiébot, Jérôme, 2016. "The impact of seabed rock roughness on tidal stream power extraction," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 762-773.
    7. Li, Xiaorong & Li, Ming & Jordan, Laura-Beth & McLelland, Stuart & Parsons, Daniel R. & Amoudry, Laurent O. & Song, Qingyang & Comerford, Liam, 2019. "Modelling impacts of tidal stream turbines on surface waves," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 725-734.
    8. Auguste, Christelle & Nader, Jean-Roch & Marsh, Philip & Penesis, Irene & Cossu, Remo, 2022. "Modelling the influence of Tidal Energy Converters on sediment dynamics in Banks Strait, Tasmania," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1105-1119.
    9. Christelle Auguste & Philip Marsh & Jean-Roch Nader & Remo Cossu & Irene Penesis, 2020. "Towards a Tidal Farm in Banks Strait, Tasmania: Influence of Tidal Array on Hydrodynamics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-22, October.
    10. Lilia Flores Mateos & Michael Hartnett, 2020. "Hydrodynamic Effects of Tidal-Stream Power Extraction for Varying Turbine Operating Conditions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-23, June.
    11. Segura, E. & Morales, R. & Somolinos, J.A., 2018. "A strategic analysis of tidal current energy conversion systems in the European Union," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 527-551.
    12. Stephen Nash & Agnieszka I. Olbert & Michael Hartnett, 2015. "Towards a Low-Cost Modelling System for Optimising the Layout of Tidal Turbine Arrays," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-19, November.
    13. Wei-Bo Chen & Hongey Chen & Lee-Yaw Lin & Yi-Chiang Yu, 2017. "Tidal Current Power Resources and Influence of Sea-Level Rise in the Coastal Waters of Kinmen Island, Taiwan," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-15, May.
    14. Fairley, I. & Karunarathna, H. & Masters, I., 2018. "The influence of waves on morphodynamic impacts of energy extraction at a tidal stream turbine site in the Pentland Firth," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 630-647.
    15. Musa, Mirko & Hill, Craig & Guala, Michele, 2019. "Interaction between hydrokinetic turbine wakes and sediment dynamics: array performance and geomorphic effects under different siting strategies and sediment transport conditions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 738-753.
    16. Goward Brown, Alice J. & Neill, Simon P. & Lewis, Matthew J., 2017. "Tidal energy extraction in three-dimensional ocean models," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 244-257.
    17. Roche, R.C. & Walker-Springett, K. & Robins, P.E. & Jones, J. & Veneruso, G. & Whitton, T.A. & Piano, M. & Ward, S.L. & Duce, C.E. & Waggitt, J.J. & Walker-Springett, G.R. & Neill, S.P. & Lewis, M.J. , 2016. "Research priorities for assessing potential impacts of emerging marine renewable energy technologies: Insights from developments in Wales (UK)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1327-1341.
    18. Fallon, D. & Hartnett, M. & Olbert, A. & Nash, S., 2014. "The effects of array configuration on the hydro-environmental impacts of tidal turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 10-25.
    19. Ian Masters & Alison Williams & T. Nick Croft & Michael Togneri & Matt Edmunds & Enayatollah Zangiabadi & Iain Fairley & Harshinie Karunarathna, 2015. "A Comparison of Numerical Modelling Techniques for Tidal Stream Turbine Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-21, July.
    20. Auguste, Christelle & Nader, Jean-Roch & Marsh, Philip & Cossu, Remo & Penesis, Irene, 2021. "Variability of sediment processes around a tidal farm in a theoretical channel," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 606-620.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:80:y:2017:i:c:p:648-662. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.