Abstract
Marine renewable energy devices, such as wave energy converters or tidal turbines, not only have the potential to provide clean, reliable power to the grid but may also offer new opportunities for ocean exploration by providing power for oceanographic sensors where other sources cannot. However, an important consideration in making this vision a reality is understanding whether the marine energy devices may interfere with oceanographic measurements. Interference may occur through several pathways, including sound produced by the device and the motion of the device itself. In this report, we provide an overview of interference pathways and their implications before exploring two use cases for marine energypowered ocean observing platforms: a tidalpowered passive acoustic monitoring system and wavepowered wave measurement buoys. For each use case, we review the relevant literature and underlying physics of the systems as they are relevant to the desired measurements before making recommendations for design of such systems.