TY - JOUR
T1 - A systematic methodology to assess local economic impacts of ocean renewable energy projects
T2 - Application to a tidal energy farm
AU - Bianchi, Marco
AU - Fernandez, Iratxe Fernandez
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2024/2
Y1 - 2024/2
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Economic assessment
KW - Input-output analysis
KW - Local impacts
KW - Ocean renewable energy
KW - Supply-chain analysis
KW - Tidal energy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85180532419&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.renene.2023.119853
DO - 10.1016/j.renene.2023.119853
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85180532419
SN - 0960-1481
VL - 221
JO - Renewable Energy
JF - Renewable Energy
M1 - 119853
ER -