Environmental issues faced across the project lifecycle Sue Barr Open Hydro

Slide 2 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Environmental issues across project lifecycle A Tidal Perspective © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 | Confidential | Sue Barr

Slide 3 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Agenda 1.OpenHydro 2.A Tidal Energy Project 3.Regulation and consenting 4.Understanding the baseline 5.Monitoring 6.Future Needs

Slide 4 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 OpenHydro  Company formed 2004  Open-Centre Turbine Technology  50+ employees in Dublin and Greenore  €63m raised to date  Operational in 7 countries. OpenHydro

Slide 5 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 OpenHydro Research Structure  Installed at EMEC during 2006  Continuous testing of 5 OCT-06 tidal turbines  Grid connected May 2008 OpenHydro’s Turbine Research Structure

Slide 6 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 OpenHydro Installer

Slide 7 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Tidal Energy Project - Subsea Installation OpenHydro Installer

Slide 8 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Subsea Installation 6m Subsea Base  Commercial design is for turbines mounted directly on the seabed.  During 2008, OpenHydro built and deployed its first seabed mounted turbine at EMEC.

Slide 9 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Subsea Installation

Slide 10 | © OpenHydro Group Limited m Open Centre Turbine

Slide 11 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Scotland – Pentland Firth  Worlds First commercial scale licensing round

Slide 12 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Commercial Developments OpenHydro Projects  OpenHydro selected by competitive process

Slide 13 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Tidal Energy Projects Initiation Development Pre-Construction Construction Feasibility studies Contracts Site Development Consultation Operate $ ADCP EIA Design / Financials Consultation Turbine Manufacture Turbine shipment Power conversion procurement Base manufacture Turbine assembly / commissioning Subsea cable installation Post installation survey Vessel resource deployment Monitoring Maintenance Component and replacement

Slide 14 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Regulation and Consenting What makes a tidal project work  Primary legislation often drafted to cover more established industries - oil & gas, fisheries, aggregate extraction.  Needs a flexible and open forum for knowledge transfer  Projects will not be successful without co-operation and data sharing. Policy Project Success

Slide 15 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Environmental Key issues for Tidal Development  Identification of key receptors - adequacy of baseline data.  Direct effects – collision, presence of devices  Physical effects – sediment regimes, energy extraction  Underwater Noise  Cumulative Effects

Slide 16 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Environmental Baseline Data Collection / Analysis  Baseline surveys carried out at all locations.  Geophysical, tidal resource, ecological and physical oceanographic data analysed.  Where required, turbine engineered for receiving environment.  Data reviewed against ongoing monitoring results.

Slide 17 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Environmental Site Assessments  Understanding the receiving environment  Good data collection relevant to project definition  Acceptance of ongoing post-construction monitoring defining effects - some things we don’t know  Sensitivities found at every location

Slide 18 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Monitoring Research Platform  Preliminary underwater noise profiling – towed hydrophone.  Seabed recovery and ROV surveys.  Ongoing ADCP data collection during turbine operation.  Underwater video of turbine and environmental interactions.  Fish Interactions at turbine.

Slide 19 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Monitoring Research Structure – Fish Interactions  Continuous video recording during operation  Camera mounted on 2m arm  Fish observation indicate feeding behaviour during periods of low tidal velocity  Arriving downstream of turbine - not upstream  Some reef effects observed- seasonality and tidal cycle to be established

Slide 20 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Results Subsea Installation  1 years post construction monitoring  Testing of deployment method and engineering  Seabed recovery, ROV and marine mammal observations  CFD Analysis and ADCP measurements at >20m

Slide 21 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Monitoring OpenHydro  Monitoring ongoing at both deployment locations; a)Regular ROV surveys b)Continuous video c)Noise d)Marine Mammal interactions  No negative environmental impacts observed.  Fish interaction – ongoing monitoring and assessing data.  No recorded marine mammal interactions.

Slide 22 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Shopping List Developers require high levels of environmental performance What do we need in terms of research ?  To understand marine species interaction with devices  Methods for detecting, identifying and analysing these interactions in low light / high energy environments

Slide 23 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Shopping List What do we need in terms of research ?  Development of models to understand far field effects in poorly understood tidal systems  Methods for determining noise profiles, sound levels and effects  Improved levels of understanding of the baseline environment in highly diverse tidal locations  Co-operation between research and developers  Meeting such as this !

Slide 24 | © OpenHydro Group Limited 2009 Questions Thank you