1. 1 | Program Name or Ancillary Texteere.energy.gov Water Power Peer Review Acoustic Effects of Hydrokinetic Tidal Turbines Dr. Brian Polagye University of Washington, NNMREC bpolagye@uw.edu November 1, 2011

2. 2 | Wind and Water Power Programeere.energy.gov Purpose, Objectives, & Integration  Determine the likely acoustic effects from a tidal energy project – understand potential harm to marine life — Ambient noise (context for turbine noise) — Sound from turbines (at various device scales) — Marine species presence (space and time variation) — Effect of sound on marine species (injury and behavioral changes)  All data collected over course of project in public domain (NNMREC website)  Industry, university, and laboratory involvement — Snohomish PUD: Craig Collar and Jessica Spahr — University of Washington: Brian Polagye, Jim Thomson, Chris Bassett (NSF graduate research fellow), Joe Graber — SMRU, Ltd: Dom Tollit and Jason Wood — PNNL: Andrea Copping and Tom Carlson

3. 3 | Wind and Water Power Programeere.energy.gov Technical Approach Monitoring Biological and Physical Characteristcs Infrared detection (land-based) AIS Tracking (land-based) Sea Spider (bottom-mounted) Marine mammal echolocation detectors Ambient noise recorder Fish tag receiver Doppler profiler

4. 4 | Wind and Water Power Programeere.energy.gov Technical Approach Sound from Tidal Turbines  Limited measurements from OpenHydro turbine at EMEC  Apply first-order scaling rules for arrays of larger turbines  Focus on post-installation characterization of turbine noise —Omnidirectional sound propagation test —Demonstrate characterization methodology for TRL 7/8 projects  Necessary to place turbine noise in context of ambient noise OpenHydro turbine noise measurements (Scottish Association of Marine Sciences )

5. 5 | Wind and Water Power Programeere.energy.gov Technical Approach Effects of Turbine Noise  Literature review of effects on marine species from percussive and continuous noise  Laboratory experiments expanding knowledge base (juvenile salmon) —Exposure to simulated turbine noise in anechoic tank —Measured hearing response to identify onset of threshold shift —Necropsies to identify tissue damage  Proxy study: effect of ferry noise on harbor porpoise —Ferry noise frequency distribution similar to turbine Top: Fish undergoing an Auditory Evoked Potential (AEP) Hearing test. Bottom: Electrophysiological response

6. 6 | Wind and Water Power Programeere.energy.gov Plan, Schedule, & Budget Schedule  Initiation date: September 30, 2009 (under contract March 26, 2010)  Planned completion date: December 31, 2011  Fabrication and deployment of Sea Spiders (August 2010)  Sound propagation field study (August 2011)  Laboratory hearing/exposure experiment (March – June 2011)  Presentation of results (e.g., webinars, conferences) (2010-2011) Budget  Two additional Sea Spider deployments (increased supplies)  85% of DOE funds costed (September 2011) Budget History FY2009FY2010FY2011 DOECost-shareDOECost-shareDOECost-share $0 $213k$26k$291k$26k

7. 7 | Wind and Water Power Programeere.energy.gov Accomplishments and Results Context is Crucial for Interpreting Acoustic Effects Ambient noise will also complicate post-installation measurements Estimated effect of turbine operation on ambient noise

8. 8 | Wind and Water Power Programeere.energy.gov Accomplishments and Results Maximum Ambient Noise is Vessel Dominated Vessel density (vessel-minutes) in project area Cumulative probability distributions of broadband received levels

9. 9 | Wind and Water Power Programeere.energy.gov Accomplishments and Results Marine Mammal Response is Site-Specific  No apparent avoidance to exposure at 140 dB (broadband)  Indicator of noise habituation N = 16 R 2 = 0.1, F = 5.5, p = 0.02

10. 10 | Wind and Water Power Programeere.energy.gov Challenges to Date OpenHydro turbine noise measurements (Scottish Association of Marine Sciences )  Acoustic Source  Limited measurements – difficult to quantify “turbine noise” Focus on testing methods to characterize turbine noise post-install  Measurements  Flow noise and self noise affect measurements when currents > 1 m/s Development of compact flow shield for stationary measurements and drifting hydrophone approach  Species effects  Cannot experiment directly on marine mammals Opportunistic proxy studies Surrogate laboratory experiments

11. 11 | Wind and Water Power Programeere.energy.gov Next Steps  Project Completion —Summary report describing techniques and lessons learned —Analysis of source propagation data —Publications: vessel noise, harbor porpoise presence, proxy study of noise effects  Future Work —Better analytical tools for scaling noise estimates from measurements —Simple tools for pre-installation estimates – emphasize measuring noise at pilot-scale —Scale-up – design trade-offs for quieter turbines