11th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC 2015)

The 11^th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference was held in Nantes, France from September 6-11 2015 and was hosted by École Centrale de Nantes. Launched in 1993, EWTEC has become a well-established marine renewable energy conference that is widely respected for their commitment to maintain high standards in the quality of academic and industrial contributions to their proceedings. With a primary focus on technology development and engineering, EWTEC provides a forum for researchers, industry, and other stakeholders to interact, present the latest knowledge, and discuss new ideas and issues pertinent to wave and tidal energy extraction.

Annex IV and OES partnered with the 11^th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference to host an environmental track. The new environmental track added a total of six new environmental sessions to the conference (as opposed to one in 2013) that were spread out over the course of four days. The addition of this new track was able to attract many environmental researchers, stakeholder, and new faces to the EWTEC conference. More information on EWTEC 2015 can be found on their website. A Tethys Story has also been written on EWTEC 2015, which can be found here.

The following is a list of each EWTEC 2015 environmental session, including the title of each paper and authors.

Monday, 7 September 2015

Session 1

Chair: Brian Polagye

Towards acoustic monitoring of marine mammals at a tidal energy site: Grand Passage, NS Canada – Chloe Malinka Sea Mammal Research Unit, UK

Surveying marine mammals in nearby tidal energy development sites: a comparison – Steve Benjamins, Scottish Association for Marine Sciences (SAMS)

An integrated solution to real-time marine mammal monitoring for tidal turbines – Peter Bromley, Tidal Energy Ltd.

Using temporal analysis techniques to optimize hydroacoustic surveys of fish at MHK devices – Haley Viehman, University of Maine School of Marine Sciences

Tuesday, 8 September 2015

Session 2

Chair: Thomas Lake

Sediment transport in the Pentland Firth and impacts of tidal stream energy extraction – Iain Alastair Fairley, Swansea University College of Engineering

Impact of scaled tidal stream turbine over mobile sediment beds – Rafael Ramirez-Mendoza, National Oceanography Centre

Marine renewable energy sediment stability evaluation framework – Jesse Roberts, Sandia National Laboratory

Remote detection of sea surface roughness signatures related to subsurface bathymetry, structures and tidal stream turbine wakes – Paul Bell, National Oceanography Centre

Session 3

Chair: Jan Sundberg

Combining offshore wind and wave energy extraction: an environmental perspective – Bob Rumes, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Models (MUMM)

Hybrid wave and offshore wind farms: a comparative case study of co-located layouts – Sharay Astariz, University of Santiago de Compostela

Synergies between wave energy and coastal protection – Javier Abanades, Plymouth University

Wave energy converters on nearshore wave propagation – Jesse Roberts, Sandia National Laboratory

Environmetal Assessment, Management and Monitoring of Carnegie Wave Energy's Perth Wave Energy Project - Edwina H.R. Davies Ward, Carnegie Wave Energy Limited 

Annex – OES State of the Science Workshop

Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Session 4

Chair: Andrea Copping

Hydrodynamic response to large scale tidal energy extraction – Alice Goward Brown, Bangor University

Field testing a full-scale tidal turbine part 2: in-line wake effects – Pal Schmitt, Queens University Belfast

Simulating habitat use in a 3D tidal environment – Thomas Lake, Swansea University

Changes in vertical fish distributions near a hydokinetic device in Covscook Bay, Maine, USA – Garrett Staines, University of Maine

Session 5

Chair: Jesse Roberts

Numerical modeling of the impact response of tidal devices and marine animals – Molly Grear, University of Washington

Field testing a full scale tidal turbine part 3: Field measurements of turbine noise characteristics – Pal Schmitt, Queen’s University Belfast

Discussion of the effects of the underwater noise generated by a wave energy device – Erica Cruz, WavEC Offshore Renewables

Acoustic characterization of a hydrokinetic turbine – Brian Polagye, University of Washington

Thursday, 10 September 2015

Session 6

Chair:Teresa Simas

A methodology to assess displacement effects on key wildlife species arising from marine energy conversion systems using onshore observation data – Caitlin Long, European Marine Energy Centre

Velocity-pressure solution to modeling 3D noise propagation from an array of current energy converters – Erik Johnson, Montana State University

Impact of EMF emissions from submarine cables on marine species – Manhar Dhanak, Florida Atlantic University

Enabling siting and permitting of marine energy devices, in conjunction with engineering design and deployment strategies – Andrea Copping, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory