“The key focus right now in renewable energy is how to achieve net-zero emissions in the next few decades, and what technologies will be needed to support the high volumes of intermittent energy from wind and/or solar in future high renewable energy systems.”
Please provide a short Introduction about your current role:
As a Research Associate at the University of Edinburgh’s Policy and Innovation Group, my research focuses on developing methodologies to quantify the benefit of innovative step-changes in marine energy technologies in terms of techno-economic, environmental and socioeconomic metrics. I have worked on a number of EC and EPSRC funded projects, and was most recently the technical manager for the OceanERA-Net funded EVOLVE project. I have also performed the role of work package leader for the UMACK (Universal Mooring, Anchor & Connectivity Kit demonstration), ETIP Ocean (European Technology and Innovation Platform for Ocean Energy) and Waveboost projects. I am particularly interested in producing and communicating quantifiable evidence exploring the progress of the marine energy sector in reducing overall system costs and environmental impacts in the context of future net-zero power systems.
“I see the term ‘just transition’ used as a buzzword all the time, but it’s important to recognise that a lot of work still has to be done to ensure that the burdens associated with decarbonisation are equitable, so we can all benefit in the long term. Emerging technologies like wave are particularly interesting to study here, as they have the potential to provide jobs and low carbon electricity to fragile coastal and islanded communities.”
From your perspective, what are the key trends in renewable energy today?
The key focus right now in renewable energy is how to achieve net-zero emissions in the next few decades, and what technologies will be needed to support the high volumes of intermittent energy from wind and/or solar in future high renewable energy systems. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has identified that 75% of the CO2 emissions reduction required in the transition towards long term decarbonisation will come from technologies which are not yet commercially deployed. This is where research engineers like me still have lots of interesting problems to solve! There’s lots of evidence to suggest that the best solution is usually a combination of various different technologies, rather than just one in isolation, and so emerging renewables like wave and tidal could play a useful role in our future energy mixes. Another key trend that I’m passionate about is ensuring a just transition to net zero. I see the term ‘just transition’ used as a buzzword all the time, but it’s important to recognise that a lot of work still has to be done to ensure that the burdens associated with decarbonisation are equitable, so we can all benefit in the long term. We know that it could cost trillions for Europe overhaul our energy system to reach net-zero, but who is paying for this and how much? Usually the energy consumer, but how do we ensure that the most vulnerable are protected from fuel poverty and unemployment? The recent energy crisis has really emphasized the importance of some of these questions. Emerging technologies like wave and tidal can also be particularly interesting to study here, as they have the potential to provide jobs and low carbon electricity to fragile coastal and islanded communities.
“The International Energy Agency (IEA) has identified that 75% of the CO2 emissions reduction required in the transition towards long term decarbonisation will come from technologies which are not yet commercially deployed.”
What role is marine energy likely to play in future net-zero power systems?
Marine energy could play a really interesting role in future net zero energy systems, as the generation profiles can be offset from other forms of variable renewables like wind and solar. Wave energy, for example, tends to be very well correlated to demand profiles in Europe, with higher availability in the winter months when demand is also higher. Wave can also be offset from wind profiles, as the waves arrive to us later than the winds that create them further out in the ocean. Tidal energy, on the other hand, isn’t correlated at all to wind or solar generation. It’s consistently available in predictable cycles, and so if we have a few days of low wind and solar resource we know exactly when we’ll have tidal energy available. In high renewable future energy systems there could be significant benefits from marine energy, in helping us to more consistently meet demand with renewable supply.
However, it’s also important to note that wave and tidal energy are still very much emerging technologies at the demonstration stage. It’s still to be seen if marine energy will play a key role in future net zero systems as costs still need to reduce, and the right support needs to be in place to progress down the learning curve. The support required includes both funding for innovative research and development (technology push) and renewable generation support mechanisms like feed in tariffs (market pull).
“Wave energy tends to be very well correlated to demand profiles in Europe, with higher availability in the winter months when demand is also higher. Wave can also be offset from wind profiles, as the waves arrive to us later than the winds that create them further out in the ocean. In high renewable future energy systems there could be significant benefits from marine energy, in helping us to more consistently meet demand with renewable supply.”
How is the marine energy sector progressing in terms of producing quantifiable evidence to demonstrate its ability to reduce overall system costs and environmental impact?
What’s really great is that we’ve been seeing a lot more studies recently investigating the potential system benefits of marine energy. The EVOLVE project, in which I was technical manager, has just released several reports to highlight the marine deployment potential across Great Britain, Ireland and Portugal, and also the potential system benefits from wave and tidal deployments in these regions. We’ve identified a technical potential resource of close to 60GW for wave energy and 10GW for tidal stream energy across these regions, and found that including wave and tidal stream energy within these power systems consistently leads to system benefits in terms of: increased renewable dispatch, decreased carbon emissions, decreased dispatch costs and decreased curtailment volumes. We’ve also produced a microgrid study looking at the ideal combination of generation installed capacity to meet demand in an islanded system, using Orkney as a case study. We found that the total system cost (capital and operational costs) is up to 20% lower when including ocean energy within the 100% renewable mix, despite wave and tidal having the highest cost of all renewable sources, due to the additional value of their complementary generation profiles. Technical summary reports for all of these studies can be found on the EVOLVE website: https://evolveenergy.eu/project-outputs/. It’s also great to see some other studies independently coming to similar conclusions. The TIGER project has recently released a report based on energy systems modelling from Imperial University, which concludes that tidal stream could reduce system costs and displace gas generation in a 2050 future energy scenario. Researchers like Dr Danny Coles from the University of Plymouth, Andrew Barney from Uppsala University and Dominik Keiner from LUT University also have some really interesting papers on the potential for marine energy to contribute to islanded systems.
“We’ve identified a technical potential resource of close to 60GW for wave energy across Great Britain, Ireland and Portugal. Including wave energy within these power systems consistently leads to system benefits in terms of: increased renewable dispatch, decreased carbon emissions, decreased dispatch costs and decreased curtailment volumes.”
How have attitudes and opinions of marine energy evolved during your time in the sector?
Yes, I think attitudes have definitely evolved a lot over the past five years or so. Part of this has been due to the value of demonstration projects, it’s so meaningful for the whole marine energy community to be able to share images of their devices being built and deployed, demonstrating to wider society that marine energy technologies are constantly being developed and improved. The European Commission’s Horizon programmes have included several innovation funding calls for marine energy projects over the past decade in Europe, and the results really show in the progress of marine energy. Over the past few years, we’ve also seen market pull mechanisms like feed-in tariffs being introduced for marine energy in countries like the UK and Canada, which demonstrates that regional governments also see the value in investing in these technologies.
Who would you want us to interview next and why?
Lara Santos Ayllon, a researcher based up at the European Marine Energy Centre on Orkney. Her fascinating research focuses on responsible innovation and energy justice in the context of marine renewables and green hydrogen in island communities. While my research mostly focuses on the techno-economic impact of innovative technologies, hers takes a socio-technical approach, looking into the energy justice implications associated with marine energy developments and how we can conduct responsible research to result in socially-informed and improved outcomes from these deployments.
What question would you like to ask him/ her?
It would be really interesting to find out more about how wave energy can contribute to the just transition, what we can do to make sure that marine energy research is as socially and environmentally responsible as possible, and what conclusions she has come to about the justice implications of wave energy deployments on Orkney specifically.
“Attitudes have definitely evolved a lot over the past five years or so. Part of this has been due to the value of demonstration projects. It’s so meaningful for the whole marine energy community to be able to share images of their devices being built and deployed, demonstrating to wider society that marine energy technologies are constantly being developed and improved.”
Name: Dr Shona Pennock
Job Title: Research Associate in Marine Energy
Lives: Glasgow, Scotland
Career in summary: Dr Shona Pennock is a researcher within the University of Edinburgh’s Policy and Innovation Group. Her research focuses on the economic and environmental impacts associated with innovations within emerging offshore renewable technologies. She is particularly interested in producing and communicating quantifiable evidence exploring the progress of the marine energy sector in reducing overall system costs and environmental impacts, especially in the context of future net-zero power systems. She has performed the role of work package leader in a number of EU and EPSRC funded projects and most recently led the Great Britain power system modelling analysis for the OceanERA-Net funded EVOLVE project. Her PhD also focused on power systems modelling, investigating the impact of a single European energy market on the economics and operation of wind power in Scotland, using various dispatch models to investigate the impact of introducing zonal pricing within GB due to the current CfD subsidy framework.
