Ambitious plans for the large-scale deployment of wave and tidal energy are underway to meet carbon reduction targets, with the deployment of 1.6GW of generation planned for the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters (PFOW), and smaller deployments planned off the coast of Wales and Isle of Wight. In parallel, numerous wave and tidal energy technologies are under development by companies ranging from small embryonic SMEs to multinational engineering companies, whilst test sites, including the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) have been established, seabed leases awarded by the Crown Estate, and the deployment of the first, small scale, arrays of devices underway. Amongst this race to develop technology and sites, concerns regarding potential interactions between wave and tidal energy devices/developments and marine mammals, seabirds and fish have emerged. These have formed the basis for the NERC/Defra Understanding How Marine Renewable Device Operations Influences Fine Scale Habitat Use and Behaviour of Marine Vertebrates (RESPONSE) (NE/J004251/1; NE/J000884/1). The study has provided new multi-disciplinary perspectives of the issue, from field studies investigating potential interactions, to the risk management challenges it poses across the wave and tidal sector. The project will directly address the challenges associated with potential marine vertebrate interactions by translating the new emerging evidence and lessons learned from the RESPONSE, FLOWBEC and MREKEP risk and uncertainty study, to inform decision-making on this potentially significant risk to the development of the wave and tidal energy sector. Through direct engagement with a community of stakeholders, incorporating device and site developers, regulators, advisory bodies, NGOs and industry associations, the embedding of this evidence in site scoping, technology design, monitoring, mitigation and consenting processes will be a practical outcome of this work.

The UK is the third largest generator of wind power in Europe, with 584 projects, 4,366 turbines and four of the five largest European wind farms. Conflicts between wind energy generation and bats - animals with high legal protection across Europe - therefore have important implications for the economy and energy security as well as biodiversity. We are currently concluding research that has quantified the scale of collision and disturbance impacts and examined potential predictors of risk. This is the only work in the UK to address this issue at commercial scale wind energy installations. The purpose of the current project is to determine with stakeholders the practical applications of the environmental data and expertise amassed during this extensive and costly research, and to package these with the assistance of users into accessible formats to facilitate more effective management of the environmental impacts of wind energy production. Stakeholders have emphasised to us that evidence-based decision making requires that they not only have access to the overall results of scientific analyses, but to information and guidance on which to base best-practice for future commercial surveys and monitoring. Because of our extensive research, we have available a unique dataset on bat activity and casualty rates at wind turbine sites across the UK, as well as unparalleled experience in practical monitoring techniques: this project will allow these to be shared with end-users. Specific outputs will include species- and region-specific reference ranges for bat activity levels, allowing stakeholders to contextualise and interpret the bat activity levels routinely recorded in surveys conducted by ecological consultants; Geographic Information System (GIS) layers to facilitate evidence-based decision making about cumulative ecological impacts; information on appropriate monitoring techniques; and assistance with understanding the potential consequences of developments for local and national bat populations. The direct beneficiaries will be wind energy developers and operators (industry), professional ecological consultants (service providers), local government ecologists and planning committees (decision makers), and Statutory Nature Conservation Organisations (SNCOs, policy makers). Keywords: environmental impact assessment; wind turbines; bats; ecological data; wind energy Stakeholders: Statutory Nature Conservation Organisations (Natural Resources Wales, Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage) Local Authority Ecologists and Planners (including The Association of Local Government Ecologists) Professional Ecological Consultants (including the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Department of Energy and Climate Change Wind energy developers and operators (including all of the major energy suppliers as well as installers of small energy systems) Non-governmental wildlife conservation organisations (e.g. Bat Conservation Trust, The Wildlife Trusts)

Wave and tidal energy devices are subjected to normal everyday loadings and abnormal extreme loadings. Extreme loadings are severe and less frequent. The repetitive loadings arising from wave-device interaction or current-blade-structure interaction are lower and occur very frequently in normal operation. Economic designs that will survive have to withstand, without structural failure, a combination of these types of loading over the design life of the device and its subsystems. Cumulative fatigue damage in the wave or turbulent-current environment could occur earlier than anticipated in the life of wave or tidal current technologies and needs to be better understood to predict wear-out or failure and ensure designs are robust without entailing excessive cost. This work will explore numerically through computer modelling, and physically through preliminary model- and sea-testing, the interaction of tidal and wave devices with their sea that surrounds them, one another, their moorings and the electricity network to understand the cyclic and irregular forces acting and the structural loadings arising, ultimately aiming to reduce fatigue effects and increase reliability.

The wind energy sector is an industry of strategic national importance, which can help secure our energy supplies, reduce our emissions and dependence on imported fossil fuels, and protect our environment. It is an industry on which our clean energy future rests. Despite the positive benefits of wind farms however, there is concern and uncertainty over the possible negative effects wind turbines may have on the environment, particularly on birds. For example, uncertainty remains over collision mortality i.e. the number of birds killed directly through collision with wind turbines. These uncertainties are far from trivial for the industry and have real consequences, potentially delaying wind farm projects and inhibiting the ability of the UK to meet its binding 2020 targets. Three projects in Round 2 of wind farm developments in the UK were delayed by over three years due in part to uncertainties over the assessment of impacts. Therefore better quantification of the uncertainty and variability associated with the estimation of impacts is required. During Environmental Impact Assessments of wind farm developments, bird collision mortality is estimated using a mathematical model which describes the interaction of a bird with a wind turbine and predicts the risks of bird collisions with turbines. There are a limited number of collision risk models in use, not only in the UK but globally. However, it is recognised by many, including industry, statutory nature conservation agencies and academics that there is much room for improvement of these models. For example, collision risk models are deterministic and rarely include variation in the input parameters such as bird density, or bird biometrics which are inherently variable, but instead use average values. Additionally, any uncertainty in these values is not expressed. Adopting a single best value for parameters may reduce complexity and increase the accessibility of results for decision-makers however it can be misleading because it ignores the range of consequences that are plausible. This project aims to i) review current models that are used to predict bird collision mortality caused by wind farm developments, ii) determine statistical methods suited to address any shortcomings of current models and then, using this information, iii) develop an updated model which incorporates variability and uncertainty. Reviewing current models and highlighting their strengths and weaknesses, as well as reviewing methods to incorporate variability and uncertainty will aid the development of a product, a collision risk model, which is fit for purpose. Development of the understanding of uncertainty in the outputs of collision risk models will be a key part of this project, and will be of direct benefit to industry, government advisors and regulators in the assessment and licensing processes for wind farm projects. The involvement of these parties will be vital in steering this project because any revision of a collision risk model has to function to better inform planning decisions for wind farm developments. To ensure that all relevant parties are involved, contribute and ultimately buy-in to the development of a new, updated model, there will be a workshop to discuss issues surrounding current practices to which developers, licensing authorities, statutory nature conservation bodies, academics and others will be invited. Also, to ensure the outputs of this project have impact and are used by the industry, the model and any documents produced will be made freely available and accessible through a dedicated webpage. Wind energy has an important role in meeting energy targets, so there is a clear need to ensure that decisions made through the planning processes use the best available information, data and models. Improved understanding of the risks of collision to birds - a key effect considered in ornithological impact assessments of wind farms - is thus vital.

The UK is at the forefront of the development, adoption and export of Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) technologies: offshore wind (OW), wave and tidal energy. To sustain this advantage, the UK must spearhead research and innovation in ORE, which will accelerate its adoption and widen the applicability of these technologies. Many organisations across the industry-academia spectrum contribute to ORE research and development (R&D) co-ordination and the ORE Supergen hub strategy will take a leadership role, integrating with these activities to guide and deliver fundamental research to advance the ORE sector. The role of the Supergen ORE hub is to provide research leadership for the ORE community to enable transformation to future scale ORE. The hub will articulate the vision for the future scale ORE energy landscape, will identify the innovations required and the fundamental research needed to underpin the innovation. It will also generate the pathway for translation of research and innovation into industry practice, for policy adaptation and public awareness in order to support the increased deployment of ORE technologies, reducing energy costs while increasing energy security, reducing CO2 emissions and supporting UK jobs. The hub will work closely with the ORE Catapult (ORECAT) and become well-connected with industry, government, the wider research community in the UK and internationally. It will bring together these groups to assemble the expertise and experience to define and target the innovations, research and actions to achieve the ambitious energy transformation envisioned for the UK. The new Supergen ORE hub will continue to support and build on the existing internationally leading academic capacity within these three research areas (OW, wave and tidal technology), whilst also enabling shared learning on common research challenges. The ORE hub will build a multi-disciplinary, collaborative approach, which will bring benefits through the sharing of best practice and exploitation of synergy, support equality and diversity and the development of the next generation of research leaders. The hub strategy provides an overview of research and innovation priorities, which will be addressed through multiple routes but linked through the hub, with activities designed to stimulate alignment across the research community and industry sectors to maximise engagement with prioritised research challenges through and beyond the hub time-scale. These include: 1. Networking and engagement activities to bring the research community together with industry and other stakeholders to ensure research efforts within the community are aligned, complementary and remain inspired by or relevant to industry challenges. This will include support and development of the ECR community to ensure sustainability and promote EDI within the sector as a whole. Actions will also be taken to identify potential cross over research synergies and opportunities for transfer of research between sectors and disciplines, both within and external to ORE. Furthermore, a structured communication plan built around progress of the community towards the sector research challenges will promote exploitation and commercialisation. 2. A set of core research work packages addressing priority topics selected and structured to maximize progress towards the sector objectives and building on the cross cutting expertise of the co-director team. 3. Targeted use of flexible fund as seed-corn activity leading to projects aligned with, and in partnership with, the hub.