ETIP Ocean has recently held a webinar that highlighted the requirement for guidance on where the environmental focus in relation to ocean energy devices needs to be put.
The webinar featured François Batifoulier from Sabella, and Caitlin Long from the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) who discussed the ways to minimize the potential negative environmental impacts of ocean energy devices.
During the webinar, it was stated that even with the results of the environmental monitoring carried out so far around ocean energy devices, knowledge gaps still remain significant.
Therefore, the ocean energy developers were encouraged to fit their devices with as many monitoring sensors as financially possible to increase data collection, according to the European Technology and Innovation Platform for Ocean Energy (ETIP Ocean) which hosted the webinar.
It is not possible to determine a single priority area requiring more urgent attention when looking at environmental impacts as they are site specific, according to the webinar findings.
Moreover, environmental impacts were found not to be limited to flora and fauna.
Consequently, the webinar recommended that clear methodologies for environmental monitoring and assessment need to be developed by academia and passed along to industry.
ETIP Ocean has released a full recording of the webinar, featured below, that provides more details on the topics discussed by the industry experts.