Tethys knowledge management system: Working to advance the marine renewable energy industry

Abstract

Development of the marine renewable energy (MRE) industry has been challenged by uncertainty about potential environmental effects, which has resulted in slowing of permitting/consenting processes, and ultimately to constraints on the industry. These challenges result from a lack of sufficient devices in the water from which to learn, a dearth of quality monitoring data, and a lack of accessibility to information about these effects in general. This paper describes an ongoing process to improve understanding of the environmental effects of MRE through a public, online knowledge management system developed by the U.S. Department of Energy, known as Tethys (https://tethys.pnnl.gov). Tethys collects and curates relevant documents while supporting a diverse international community through intentional outreach and synthesis activities, many of which support an international collaboration under the IEA Ocean Energy System’s Annex IV. After eight years of operation, Tethys is internationally recognized and viewed as a trusted broker of information, with over 50,000 visitors annually. Tethys has provided clarity around environmental effects during a critical time in the industry when deployments are increasing in size and frequency.

A Review of Modeling Approaches for Understanding and Monitoring the Environmental Effects of Marine Renewable Energy

“…We located modeling studies by searching the Tethys Knowledge Base [24], searching keywords on the Web of Science database (Clarivate Analytics; keywords listed in Table A1 in Appendix A), references in Annex IV 2016 State of the Science Report [23] and OES-Environmental 2020 State of the Science report [1], and references in other reviewed studies. We attempted to include one or more representative studies using every model approach that has been employed; for stressor-receptor interactions with a larger number of modeling studies we did not review every use of those models, but rather provided examples of the application of each.…”

A Probabilistic Methodology for Determining Collision Risk of Marine Animals with Tidal Energy Turbines

“…Evidence that supports a risk assessment for each of the seven events was acquired through a search of the literature that included peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals (Web of Science and Tethys knowledge base-a database devoted to compiling information about the environmental effects of MRE-https://tethys.pnnl.gov accessed May 1st 2023) as well as the additional grey literature found on Tethys [40] to contextualize the probability of each event occurring. Although the peer-reviewed scientific literature was the primary base of evidence, the MRE industry is still in the early stages of development, and some key findings are documented in environmental monitoring reports and permitting/consenting documents that are not available in the peer-reviewed literature or found in associated databases.…”

What’s in My Toolkit? A Review of Technologies for Assessing Changes in Habitats Caused by Marine Energy Development

“…The initial search for literature describing methodologies and technologies employed for characterizing changes in habitat was carried out in the Tethys online knowledge base (https://tethys.pnnl.gov; accessed on 31 March 2021 [39]), and involved screening all past and current marine energy project sites around the world that were listed in the knowledge base as of August 2020. All research articles, environmental impact assessment documents, and baseline and monitoring survey reports publicly available in English associated with these project sites were reviewed.…”