IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v72y2014icp415-427.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimization modelling of the impacts of a Severn Barrage for a two-way generation scheme using a Continental Shelf model

Author

Listed:
  • Zhou, Juntao
  • Pan, Shunqi
  • Falconer, Roger A.

Abstract

The Severn Estuary has the world's second largest tide range and a barrage across the estuary, located just seawards of Cardiff in Wales and Weston in the South West England, has been proposed for over half a century, with the objective of extracting large amounts of tidal energy. A Severn Barrage, as previously proposed by the Severn Tidal Power Group (STPG), would be the largest renewable energy project for tidal power generation in the world, if built as proposed, and would generate approximately 5% of the UK's electricity needs. However, concerns have been raised over the environmental impacts of such a barrage, including potential increase in flood risk, loss of intertidal habitats etc. In addressing the challenges of maximizing the energy output and minimizing the environmental impacts of such a barrage, this research study has focused on using a Continental Shelf model, based on the modified Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC) with a barrage operation module (EFDC_B), to investigate both the far and near field hydrodynamic impacts of a barrage for different operating scenarios. Three scenarios have been considered to simulate the Severn Barrage, operating via two-way generation and using different combinations of turbines and sluices. The first scenario consisted of 216 turbines and 166 sluices installed along the barrage; the second consisted of 382 turbines with no sluices; and the third consisted of 764 turbines and no sluices. The specification of the sluice gates and turbines are the same for all scenarios. The model results indicate that the third scenario has the best mitigating effects for the far-field and near-field flood risks caused by a barrage and produces the most similar results of minimum water depth and maximum velocity distributions to those obtained from simulating the natural conditions of the estuary, i.e. the current conditions. The results also show that the flow patterns around the barrage are closest to those for the existing natural conditions with minimal slight changes in the estuary. Thus, the results clearly indicate that the environmental impacts of a Severn Barrage can be minimized if the barrage is operated for two-way generation and under the third scenario. Although it appears that the energy output for the third scenario is less than that obtained for the other two scenarios, if very low head (VLH) turbines are used, then the third scenario could generate more energy as more turbines could be cited along the barrage structure. Therefore, the study shows that a Severn Barrage, operating in two-way generation and with 764 turbines (ideally VLH turbines), would be the best option to meet the needs of maximizing the energy output, but having a minimal impact on environmental changes in the estuary and far-field.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Juntao & Pan, Shunqi & Falconer, Roger A., 2014. "Optimization modelling of the impacts of a Severn Barrage for a two-way generation scheme using a Continental Shelf model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 415-427.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:72:y:2014:i:c:p:415-427
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2014.07.036
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148114004340
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2014.07.036?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xia, Junqiang & Falconer, Roger A. & Lin, Binliang, 2010. "Impact of different operating modes for a Severn Barrage on the tidal power and flood inundation in the Severn Estuary, UK," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(7), pages 2374-2391, July.
    2. Xia, Junqiang & Falconer, Roger A. & Lin, Binliang, 2010. "Hydrodynamic impact of a tidal barrage in the Severn Estuary, UK," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1455-1468.
    3. Zhou, Juntao & Falconer, Roger A. & Lin, Binliang, 2014. "Refinements to the EFDC model for predicting the hydro-environmental impacts of a barrage across the Severn Estuary," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 490-505.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roche, R.C. & Walker-Springett, K. & Robins, P.E. & Jones, J. & Veneruso, G. & Whitton, T.A. & Piano, M. & Ward, S.L. & Duce, C.E. & Waggitt, J.J. & Walker-Springett, G.R. & Neill, S.P. & Lewis, M.J. , 2016. "Research priorities for assessing potential impacts of emerging marine renewable energy technologies: Insights from developments in Wales (UK)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1327-1341.
    2. Angeloudis, Athanasios & Kramer, Stephan C. & Hawkins, Noah & Piggott, Matthew D., 2020. "On the potential of linked-basin tidal power plants: An operational and coastal modelling assessment," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 876-888.
    3. Moreira, Túlio Marcondes & de Faria, Jackson Geraldo & Vaz-de-Melo, Pedro O.S. & Medeiros-Ribeiro, Gilberto, 2023. "Development and validation of an AI-Driven model for the La Rance tidal barrage: A generalisable case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    4. Angeloudis, Athanasios & Falconer, Roger A., 2017. "Sensitivity of tidal lagoon and barrage hydrodynamic impacts and energy outputs to operational characteristics," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 337-351.
    5. Lisboa, A.C. & Vieira, T.L. & Guedes, L.S.M. & Vieira, D.A.G. & Saldanha, R.R., 2017. "Optimal analytic dispatch for tidal energy generation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 371-379.
    6. Angeloudis, Athanasios & Kramer, Stephan C. & Avdis, Alexandros & Piggott, Matthew D., 2018. "Optimising tidal range power plant operation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 680-690.
    7. Angeloudis, Athanasios & Falconer, Roger A. & Bray, Samuel & Ahmadian, Reza, 2016. "Representation and operation of tidal energy impoundments in a coastal hydrodynamic model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1103-1115.
    8. Guo, Bin & Ahmadian, Reza & Falconer, Roger A., 2021. "Refined hydro-environmental modelling for tidal energy generation: West Somerset Lagoon case study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 2104-2123.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Angeloudis, Athanasios & Falconer, Roger A., 2017. "Sensitivity of tidal lagoon and barrage hydrodynamic impacts and energy outputs to operational characteristics," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 337-351.
    2. Roche, R.C. & Walker-Springett, K. & Robins, P.E. & Jones, J. & Veneruso, G. & Whitton, T.A. & Piano, M. & Ward, S.L. & Duce, C.E. & Waggitt, J.J. & Walker-Springett, G.R. & Neill, S.P. & Lewis, M.J. , 2016. "Research priorities for assessing potential impacts of emerging marine renewable energy technologies: Insights from developments in Wales (UK)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1327-1341.
    3. Angeloudis, Athanasios & Ahmadian, Reza & Falconer, Roger A. & Bockelmann-Evans, Bettina, 2016. "Numerical model simulations for optimisation of tidal lagoon schemes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 522-536.
    4. Neill, Simon P. & Angeloudis, Athanasios & Robins, Peter E. & Walkington, Ian & Ward, Sophie L. & Masters, Ian & Lewis, Matt J. & Piano, Marco & Avdis, Alexandros & Piggott, Matthew D. & Aggidis, Geor, 2018. "Tidal range energy resource and optimization – Past perspectives and future challenges," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 763-778.
    5. Angeloudis, Athanasios & Falconer, Roger A. & Bray, Samuel & Ahmadian, Reza, 2016. "Representation and operation of tidal energy impoundments in a coastal hydrodynamic model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1103-1115.
    6. Xue, Jingjing & Ahmadian, Reza & Jones, Owen & Falconer, Roger A., 2021. "Design of tidal range energy generation schemes using a Genetic Algorithm model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    7. Harcourt, Freddie & Angeloudis, Athanasios & Piggott, Matthew D., 2019. "Utilising the flexible generation potential of tidal range power plants to optimise economic value," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 873-884.
    8. Fairley, I. & Ahmadian, R. & Falconer, R.A. & Willis, M.R. & Masters, I., 2014. "The effects of a Severn Barrage on wave conditions in the Bristol Channel," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 428-442.
    9. Xia, Junqiang & Falconer, Roger A. & Lin, Binliang & Tan, Guangming, 2012. "Estimation of annual energy output from a tidal barrage using two different methods," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 327-336.
    10. Angeloudis, Athanasios & Kramer, Stephan C. & Avdis, Alexandros & Piggott, Matthew D., 2018. "Optimising tidal range power plant operation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 680-690.
    11. Guo, Bin & Ahmadian, Reza & Falconer, Roger A., 2021. "Refined hydro-environmental modelling for tidal energy generation: West Somerset Lagoon case study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 2104-2123.
    12. Zhou, Juntao & Falconer, Roger A. & Lin, Binliang, 2014. "Refinements to the EFDC model for predicting the hydro-environmental impacts of a barrage across the Severn Estuary," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 490-505.
    13. Iglesias, G. & Carballo, R., 2014. "Wave farm impact: The role of farm-to-coast distance," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 375-385.
    14. Jingjing Xue & Reza Ahmadian & Roger A. Falconer, 2019. "Optimising the Operation of Tidal Range Schemes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-23, July.
    15. Anicic, Obrad & Jovic, Srdjan, 2016. "Adaptive neuro-fuzzy approach for ducted tidal turbine performance estimation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1111-1116.
    16. Lewis, M.J. & Angeloudis, A. & Robins, P.E. & Evans, P.S. & Neill, S.P., 2017. "Influence of storm surge on tidal range energy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 25-36.
    17. Aguiar, Alessandro L. & Marta-Almeida, Martinho & Cirano, Mauro & Pereira, Janini & da Cunha, Letícia Cotrim, 2024. "Numerical assessment of tidal potential energy in the Brazilian Equatorial Shelf," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    18. Obara, Shin’ya & Kawai, Masahito & Kawae, Osamu & Morizane, Yuta, 2013. "Operational planning of an independent microgrid containing tidal power generators, SOFCs, and photovoltaics," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 1343-1357.
    19. Park, Young Hyun, 2017. "Analysis of characteristics of Dynamic Tidal Power on the west coast of Korea," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P1), pages 461-474.
    20. Amelio, Mario & Barbarelli, Silvio & Florio, Gaetano & Scornaienchi, Nino Michele & Minniti, Giovanni & Cutrupi, Antonino & Sánchez-Blanco, Manuel, 2012. "Innovative tidal turbine with central deflector for the exploitation of river and sea currents in on-shore installations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 944-955.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:72:y:2014:i:c:p:415-427. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.