Environmental Risk Evaluation System (ERES) for Offshore Wind - Mock-Up of ERES, Fiscal Year 2010 Progress Report

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to develop tools that examine the environmental effects of offshore wind development, in order to streamline and facilitate the siting and permitting of wind farms in the U.S. During FY 2010, the conceptual framework for the environmental risk evaluation system (ERES) and the knowledge management system (Zephyrus) to house environmental effects data was developed. This report provides a visualization of that framework. The framework has not yet been developed; the examples shown are mock ups but are indicative of real data and analysis needs for facilitating siting and permitting offshore wind farms in the U.S. Descriptions of environmental data that will be collected within the system, ancillary engineering and ocean space use data, and examples of analytical tools are provided. Each example is visualized within the mockup of Zephyrus. PNNL expects to build out ERES and Zephyrus in future phases of the project.PNNL's offshore wind program hosted two undergraduate researchers during the summer of 2010. Each student undertook a project that supports the development of the offshore wind ERES. One student examined the use of visualization tools for visual effects of offshore wind farms; the other gathered and analyzed geospatial data on migratory animals that may be affected by offshore wind farms. Their reports are included at the end of this report.v

Risk Retirement—Decreasing Uncertainty and Informing Consenting Processes for Marine Renewable Energy Development

“…(2) Hierarchical methods allow for triage of risks to effectively filter out low risks, allowing a focus on medium-to-high risks [23]. (3) The Environmental Risk Evaluation System (ERES) was developed for the marine energy and offshore wind industry as a process to inform developers, regulators, and stakeholders on the potential environmental impacts of a project [24,25]. (4) The Impact Assessment Tool was developed for Marine Scotland to provide preliminary assessments of potential environmental risks associated with MRE projects [26].…”