Global assessment of historical, current and forecast ocean energy infrastructure: Implications for marine space planning, sustainable design and end-of-engineered-life management
Global assessment of historical, current and forecast ocean energy infrastructure: Implications for marine space planning, sustainable design and end-of-engineered-life management
Thousands of structures are currently installed in our oceans to help meet our global energy needs. This number is set to increase with the transition to renewable energy, due to lower energy yield per structure, growing energy demand and greater and more diverse use of ocean space (e.g. for food, industrial or scientific activity). A clear and comprehensive picture of the spatial and temporal distribution of ocean energy assets is crucial to inform marine spatial planning, sustainable design of ocean infrastructure and end-of-engineered-life management, to prevent an exponentially increasing asset base becoming an economic and environmental burden.
Here we define the spatial and temporal dimensions of the challenge that lies before us through creation of a comprehensive global dataset of past, current and forecast ocean energy infrastructure and offshore energy resources, both hydrocarbon and wind, for the period 1960 - 2040. The data is collected together for the first time and made available in the public domain through an interactive online map . The resulting oceanscape provides insight into the type, quantity, density and geographic centres of the accumulating asset base, which in turn enables informed consideration of how marine space alongside design and end-of-engineered-life of ocean infrastructure can be managed responsibly and sustainably.
Decommissioning, Design, Marine spatial planning, Ocean energy infrastructure, Offshore renewable energy, Socio-economic-environmental balance
Gourvenec, Susan
6ff91ad8-1a91-42fe-a3f4-1b5d6f5ce0b8
Sturt, Fraser
442e14e1-136f-4159-bd8e-b002bf6b95f6
Reid, Emily
a92c07ed-6f38-49fc-a890-0339489df255
Trigos, Federico
de459987-eb6d-4474-bc59-1fd1c2977cac
February 2022
Gourvenec, Susan
6ff91ad8-1a91-42fe-a3f4-1b5d6f5ce0b8
Sturt, Fraser
442e14e1-136f-4159-bd8e-b002bf6b95f6
Reid, Emily
a92c07ed-6f38-49fc-a890-0339489df255
Trigos, Federico
de459987-eb6d-4474-bc59-1fd1c2977cac
Gourvenec, Susan, Sturt, Fraser, Reid, Emily and Trigos, Federico
(2022)
Global assessment of historical, current and forecast ocean energy infrastructure: Implications for marine space planning, sustainable design and end-of-engineered-life management.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 154 (February 111794), [111794].
(doi:10.1016/j.rser.2021.111794).
Abstract
Thousands of structures are currently installed in our oceans to help meet our global energy needs. This number is set to increase with the transition to renewable energy, due to lower energy yield per structure, growing energy demand and greater and more diverse use of ocean space (e.g. for food, industrial or scientific activity). A clear and comprehensive picture of the spatial and temporal distribution of ocean energy assets is crucial to inform marine spatial planning, sustainable design of ocean infrastructure and end-of-engineered-life management, to prevent an exponentially increasing asset base becoming an economic and environmental burden.
Here we define the spatial and temporal dimensions of the challenge that lies before us through creation of a comprehensive global dataset of past, current and forecast ocean energy infrastructure and offshore energy resources, both hydrocarbon and wind, for the period 1960 - 2040. The data is collected together for the first time and made available in the public domain through an interactive online map . The resulting oceanscape provides insight into the type, quantity, density and geographic centres of the accumulating asset base, which in turn enables informed consideration of how marine space alongside design and end-of-engineered-life of ocean infrastructure can be managed responsibly and sustainably.
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Published date: February 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This project received funding through a Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Research Development Fund award ‘Environmental and social consequences of decommissioning offshore infrastructure’ 2 2 . Susan Gourvenec is supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering under the Chairs in Emerging Technologies Scheme, Fraser Sturt is supported by the award of a Philip Leverhulme Prize.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Decommissioning, Design, Marine spatial planning, Ocean energy infrastructure, Offshore renewable energy, Socio-economic-environmental balance
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 452616
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/452616
ISSN: 1364-0321
PURE UUID: 292baaa3-6c10-411f-a6ef-51e062b54cb7
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Date deposited: 11 Dec 2021 11:29
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:48
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Federico Trigos
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