From Scotland to New Scotland: Constructing a sectoral marine plan for tidal energy for Nova Scotia

Stephen Sangiuliano, Stanley Mastrantonis
2017 Marine Policy  
ii A B S T R A C T The marine environment has historically played a significant role in sustaining coastal economies, with 44% of the global population living within 150km of the coast. Projections of exponential population growth and an increase in living standards in the near future suggest that economic activity linked to the marine environment will grow, thereby giving rise to an increase in marine spatial usage in finite marine space. This materialization can exacerbate user -user
more » ... , while placing further stress on the ecological functions of the marine environment, thereby contributing to enhance user -environment conflict. In order to solve such dilemmas, coastal nations have advocated for the implementation of marine spatial planning (MSP). A narrative running in parallel with MSP is that of climate change as a product of the excessive combustion of fossil fuels for purposes of energy provision. This climate change dilemma has prompted politicians around the world to advocate for the implementation of renewable energy systems. For geographical areas with high tidal current velocities, tidal current turbines (TCTs) offer a way to meet renewable energy capacity and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions targets. However, TCTs become another player operating within a finite and already stressed marine environment. Therefore, Scotland, whose marine environment hosts an abundance of tidal current resources, has become the first and only nation to construct and implement a sectoral marine plan for tidal energy (SMPTE) in order to facilitate the commercial-scale development of TCTs to meet national renewable energy deployment and GHG emissions reductions targets while accounting for potential industry and environmental conflicts. Nova Scotia is another geographical area with similar tidal resource potential. However, a plethora of factors have seemed to inhibit the deployment of TCTs in provincial waters. While Nova Scotia demonstrates a substantial industry cluster, capacity building, and supply chain, the province lacks a comprehensive MSP to manage uses of the marine environment in conjunction with TCT deployment. This paper constructs a draft SMPTE for Nova Scotia. The paper overviews the operation and timeline of tidal energy development internationally and compares it to the Nova Scotia context. Due to the complexities associated with the multiplicity of federal and provincial governmental departments delegated with legislative jurisdiction over various aspects of the marine environment, an analysis of legislation and policies is undertaken in conjunction with best practices in Europe in order to establish jurisdictional boundaries and authorities in relation to the proposed SMPTE. The SMPTE process and outputs are then detailed and a map of suitable plan option areas that take into consideration ecological, technological, social, cultural, political, and economic factors is presented and compared to the marine renewable-energy areas legislated under the Marine Renewable-energy Act 2015. A quality management review of the SMPTE is undertaken in relation to the ICES Marine Spatial Planning Quality Management System and compared against the quality management review undertaken for Scotland's SMPTE. Research and data gaps are identified and key recommendations are made for the province of Nova Scotia and its tidal energy industry. iii F O R E W O R D The content of this major paper is the culmination of the work I have undertaken during my enrollment in York University's Master in Environmental Studies (MES) degree in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. My Plan of Study (PoS) concentration is renewable energy planning for sustainable settlements. The components of my PoS are energy planning, climate change, and renewable energy. The objective of my major paper was to construct a sectoral marine plan for tidal energy (SMPTE) for the province of Nova Scotia. In fulfillment of the renewable energy component of my PoS, I have researched the operational parameters, ecological impacts, societal perceptions, and economics of tidal current turbines (TCTs), a renewable energy technology (RET) which utilizes the kinetic energy emanating from the lateral movement of the tides to produce electricity. TCTs are advantageous in comparison to other RETs given their predictability, reliability, high capacity factors, and ability to easily accommodate energy storage to provide base-load power. In fulfillment of the climate change component of my PoS, I researched the detrimental ecological implications on societies emanating from the excessive combustion of fossil fuels for purposes of energy provision. Finally, in fulfillment of the energy planning component of my PoS, I have completed the Planning checklist in the MES degrees planning stream in order to obtain an in depth comprehension of the technical and theoretical aspects of planning. In relation to my major paper, I had focused on marine spatial planning (MSP), an area of concentration which serves to identify industry and environmental conflicts within marine environments with the intent of spatially allocating users of the marine environment in a sustainable manner. MSP provides a strategic siting methodology for TCTs which takes into account technological, ecological, political, social, economic, and legal factors. In this MSP field, I had worked for Marine Scotland Science, the epicenter of the TCT industry and associated MSP practices, to undertake and publish a quality management review of their SMPTE. It is with all this knowledge and experience from which I have obtained during my two years in the MES degree which has allowed me to construct a SMPTE for Nova Scotia in fulfillment of my major paper, the MES planning stream checklist, and the overall MES requirements. Upon starting my MES degree at York University, I hadn't the slightest clue about renewable energy systems and/or what "planning" even meant. In a coordinated effort to educate myself, I downloaded every article available off of the first 10 pages of search results of Google Scholar for every renewable energy type I had read existed on Wikipedia. One day I opened and article entitled Modeling the Operation and Maintenance Costs of a Large Scale Tidal Current Turbine Farm, written by Ye Li and H. Keith Florig, and this was the first time I saw a tidal current turbine (page iv). I thought it was the most majestic site, a piece of technology that can concur the vast and dangerous ocean in an attempt to save the planet. After learning about the technology I was instantly hooked, and immediately dropped all other focuses in my life and told myself that I would go through hell and high water (no pun intended) to put these devices in the ocean. iv
doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2017.06.023 fatcat:mmkbv7xjkbhklmnfnivgcadvae