Environmental and Social Acceptance

Introduction

The Environmental and Social Acceptance module (ESA) aims to assess the environmental and social impacts generated by the various technology choices and array configurations of wave or tidal devices.

Structure

This module’s documentation is divided into four main sections:

• Tutorials to give step-by-step instructions on using ESA for new users.

• How-to Guides that show how to achieve specific outcomes using ESA.

• A section on background, theory and calculation methods that describes how ESA works and aims to give confidence in the tools.

• The API reference section documents the code of modules, classes, API, and GUI.

Functionalities

Following the regulatory context of environmental risk assessment and socio-economic opportunities, the Environmental and Social Acceptance (ESA) module was structured into four different parts representing four complementary assessments:

1. Identification of the potential presence of endangered species in the area of MRE installation (i.e. species included in the IUCN red list);

2. Environmental impact assessment estimated for the main environmental stressors pre-identified as potential stressors from MRE such as the underwater noise or the collision risk between vessels/devices and the marine wildlife;

3. Estimation of the carbon footprint and the green-house effect of the project in terms of Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) ; and

4. Information to improve the social acceptance of the project considering socio-economic opportunities.

Workflow for using the tool

The workflow for using the Environmental and Social Acceptance module can be summarised as 1) provide inputs, 2) perform an assessment depending on the complexity level, and 3) view the results, as shown below.

Overview of data requirements

Section	Complexity 1	Complexity 2	Complexity 3	Units
Farm inputs	Coordinates of the farm	Global area description, Fishing regulation	Global area description, Fishing regulation Initial environmental state	€/MW
Devices inputs		General information, Dimensions, Resources, Fishing restriction, Foundations information	General information, Dimensions, Resources, Fishing restriction, foundations information Measurements of environmental parameters
Electrical inputs		General information, Installation information, fishing restriction, Resources	General information, Fishing restriction, Resources Measurements of environmental parameters	GWh
Logistics inputs		Characteristics of the boats, Fuel consumption	Characteristics of the boat in each phase, fuel consumption Measurements of environmental parameters

Summary of optional inputs

Section	Sub category
Farm inputs	Protected species Receptors presence