The EcoWatt2050 project is a three-year project, funded by EPSRC, which was designed to explore the limits of deployment of marine renewable energy in Scotland.

It follows on from the TeraWatt project, which identified modelling methodology for implementation of wave and tidal devices and quantified the resource, in order to explore more fully the environmental impacts of large-scale marine renewable deployments in conjunction with projected future climate in 2050. The NOC contribution consists of running the Scottish Shelf Model to determine changes in physical parameters, important to the habitats of mobile marine species, due to climate change and the deployment of large arrays of tidal turbines.

Websites:

PI: Prof. Jonathan Side, Heriot-Watt University
Email: J.C.Side at hw.ac.uk

NOC contact: Dr Judith Wolf
Email: jaw at noc.ac.uk

NOC contact: Dr Michela De Dominicis
Email: micdom at noc.ac.uk

Dates
–
Funding

UK Government (exc NERC)

Aim

The research programme was designed to respond to questions posed by Marine Scotland Science:

  1. How can marine planning be used to lay the foundation for the sustainable development of very large scale arrays of marine renewable energy devices?
  2. What criteria should be used to determine the ecological limits to marine renewable energy extraction, and what are the implications for very large scale array characteristics?
  3. How can we differentiate the effects of climate change from energy extraction on the marine ecosystem?
  4. Are there ways in which marine renewables development may ameliorate or exacerbate the predicted effects of climate change on marine ecosystems?

The overarching objective is thus to determine ways in which marine spatial planning and policy development, can enable the maximum level of marine energy extraction, while minimizing environmental impacts and ensuring that these meet the legal criteria established by European law.