Abstract
Under a project with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office Marine Hydrokinetic Program (Program), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is reviewing existing marine renewable energy regulatory material in published, docketed, or circulated forms. This literature review describes existing regulatory conditions, details the regulatory history of seminal marine renewable energy projects, and summarizes recommendations from key reports about marine energy regulation.
There is substantial available literature regarding the environmental effects of marine energy. The authors intentionally avoided reviewing literature regarding direct environmental effects, instead focusing on the literature that provided insight into the regulatory impact of having little knowledge or no established mechanism to address those effects.
This report will be combined with over 30 interviews conducted in 2017 with experienced marine renewable energy regulators, stakeholders, and developers into an analysis of marine energy regulation.
The goal of the greater project is to identify actionable tasks to improve regulatory efficiency for marine renewable energy, to reduce the cost and time of deployment while preserving environmental stewardship and the needs of other ocean users.