A systematic methodology to assess local economic impacts of ocean renewable energy projects: Application to a tidal energy farm

Marco Bianchi*, Iratxe Fernandez Fernandez

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Ocean renewable energy (ORE) is one of the most important clean sources of energy and a major player towards the EU ambitions of being net zero emission by 2050. However, at present, there are few examples of commercially viable ORE technologies and no large-scale projects currently under implementation. Together with social and environmental analyses, the assessment of economic impacts is one of the key elements to help policy makers build a compelling case to gain local community acceptance and implement ORE projects. This paper presents a systematic methodology to assess local economic impacts of renewable energy projects, including jobs creation and impacts on gross value added and income. By combining the use of Location Quotients – which are indexes informing on local industrial specialisation – with the Input-Output multipliers the method can be used to map the supply-chain potential of a local economy and estimate local impacts compared to global ones. The method has been applied to a tidal project carried out in Orkney, Scotland. The research demonstrates the merit of early economic assessments for understanding the economic benefit of ORE projects, particularly for the local communities in which they are located, and it provides a methodological framework to be tested in other case studies.

Original languageEnglish
Article number119853
JournalRenewable Energy
Volume221
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2024

Keywords

  • Economic assessment
  • Input-output analysis
  • Local impacts
  • Ocean renewable energy
  • Supply-chain analysis
  • Tidal energy

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