Abstract
This report assesses the potential environmental effects (Section 2), including potential installation, operation, and decommissioning effects, and permitting issues (Section 3) associated with development of a tidal power project. The methods used to compile potential environmental effects included collecting and researching the existing reports that have been prepared for other marine energy projects. While the wave energy projects are typically farther offshore than the tidal projects discussed herin, certain installation activities and related potential environmental effects are similar and worthy of discussion. There are other marine activities necessary for the installation of a TISEC project which have been practiced for many years like barge anchoring, and pile drilling/driving. There are numerous reports available for the potential effects related to these activities. Conversely, there are literally no reports available which provide environmental effects based on monitoring studies of tidal turbines, due to the fact that this is an emerging technology. In these cases, attempts were made to identify similar activities and provide a comparison of the potential environmental effects that will likely need to be addressed in any environmental permitting activities.