Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. / Bibliography: p. 26-27.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-66). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-137).

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-62). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2007. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-76). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 114). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Sourcing energy from renewable sources is currently a key theme in modern society. Consequently, the pace of development of these emerging technologies is likely to increase in the near future, particularly in marine renewables. However, the environmental and ecological impact of many of these new developments in the marine environment is largely unknown. My thesis has focused on one unknown area of interaction; the potential effect of tidal-stream devices on marine mammals. Collision risk is often cited as a key concern. Therefore, my premise was - for marine mammals to avoid a collision with a marine renewable device (assuming they are on a collision course) they must first detect the device. It is well understood that marine mammals use sound and hearing as their primary sense for communication, foraging, navigation and predator avoidance, so it is highly likely that the primary cue for device detection will be acoustic. However, it is not known how operational marine renewable devices might modify the acoustic landscape in these areas, or whether they will be audible to marine mammals in time to alert them to the presence of devices. It has been suggested that the high level of natural and anthropogenic background noise in tidal-stream areas may mask (drown out) the signal of the tidal devices. The acoustic characteristics of underwater noise in shallow coastal waters are currently not well known. My thesis adds data to this knowledge gap by measuring and mapping underwater noise levels in tidal-stream areas.

With the Scottish Government's commitment to sourcing 100% of the national electricity demand from renewable sources by 2020, within the global framework of climate change mitigation, the potential of the marine environment around the Highlands and Islands Region of Scotland to add to Scotland's renewables portfolio has led to the expansion of the wave and tidal industries in recent years. Nevertheless, to date, there has been limited research conducted on the social systems around marine renewable energy development, excluding offshore wind. In answer to this deficit, this study explores a well-established concept within the academic arenas of business, health, and rural development, among others, of agents for change (AFCs), within the context of the rapidly emerging wave energy sector. Two case studies, Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, and Orkney, were chosen based on their localities and the interest that they have garnered from wave energy developers due to their high energy marine environments. A grounded approach was taken to data collection and a social power analysis was conducted in order to find AFCs working within or closely with the wave energy industry that were not part of structured or hierarchical organisations. One emergent theme was that there was a noteworthy barrier to wave energy development in the case studies and to the work that the agents for change were doing in the form of a complex dynamic between financial investments in the sector, national grid, national energy policy, and the technology itself. The agents for change were found to act as catalysts for the wave energy industry through their perseverance and visionary approach to development. The motivations of the AFCs is discussed and the shifting roles that they took as a project progresses is described and compared to other change process models, namely Lewin (1958) and Kotter (1995).

This thesis investigates the effects of wave energy converters (WECs) on water waves through the analysis of extensive laboratory experiments, as well as subsequent numerical simulations. Data for the analysis was collected during the WEC-Array Experiments performed at the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University, under co-operation with Columbia Power Technologies, using five 1:33 scale point-absorbing WECs. The observed wave measurement and WEC performance data sets allowed for a direct computation of power removed from the wave field for a large suite of incident wave conditions and WEC array sizes. To numerically represent WEC effects the influence of the WECs upon the wave field was parameterized using the power absorption data from the WECs. Because a large driver of the WECs influence on the wave field is absorbed wave power by the WEC, it is reasonable to attempt a parameterization based on this process. It was of interest as to whether this parameterization, which does not account for wave scattering among other physics, could provide a good estimate of far-field effects. Accurately predicting WEC-array effects in the far-field requires empirical validation. Previous WEC analysis and modeling studies had limited data available for model verification, and additionally had used idealized WEC performance. In the present work we develop a WEC-array parameterization for use in phase-averaged wave models (e.g. SWAN). This parametrization only considers the wave absorption effects of the WECs and the model predictions of far-field effects are compared to observations. Further testing of the SWAN model was performed against a phase-resolving model, WAMIT, to determine the significance of physics the WEC absorption parameterization does not capture, such as scattered waves. Considering the complexity of the problem, the parameterization of WECs by only power absorption is a reasonable predictor of the effect of WECs on the far field. / Graduation date: 2013

Thesis (M.S.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2010. / Title from PDF title page; viewed on May 15, 2010. Major professor: Robert S. Crockett, Ph.D. "Presented to the faculty of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo." "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree [of] Master of Science in Engineering." "March 2010." Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-65).