The Managing the Environmental Sustainability of the Offshore Energy Transition project (MOET) brings together internationally recognised expertise from BGS, Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the National Oceanographic Centre. In collaboration with our stakeholders, the project will deliver the fundamental environmental, social and economic research needed to support evidence-based decision making, offshore regulation and operational best practice for the sustainable use of the UK continental shelf.
Project aims
The UK's energy transition to net-zero emissions (net zero) has driven the rapid expansion of offshore infrastructure associated with windfarms and the subsurface storage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. MOET -provides the UK's first holistic study of the environmental and social effects resulting from the infrastructure expansion. It also supports a unique opportunity to demonstrate a world-leading, all-inclusive approach to offshore environmental management and infrastructure development
Project rationale
The UK energy sector has already started the transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy to sustain prosperity while achieving net zero by the government's target of 2050. The transition will require increased development of offshore windfarms, temporary storage of hydrogen and permanent storage of carbon dioxide. Often-sensitive marine environments, including the subsurface, seabed and the water column, and other marine-based activities such as fishing, aggregate extraction. cabling and shipping must interact with the infrastructure necessary for their development. This interaction will create potentially significant new challenges for the protection and optimal use of these spaces, which are already under climate-related stress.
Consequently, there will also be new questions around the public's acceptance of the net benefits versus costs, resulting in a complex network of stakeholders including policymakers, industry and UK citizens. Their engagement is crucial for the successful implementation of offshore solutions to achieve net zero.
The project team, in collaboration with our stakeholders, will provide objective criteria to inform the selection of the most appropriate sites for planned UK offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) and energy hub programmes. MOET will also deliver new social and economic insights into trade-offs for siting of offshore windfarms and hydrogen storage at the scale needed to meet the UK's net zero targets.
Research questions
The expert project team, in consultation with our stakeholders, identified four fundamental research questions that need to be answered to inform the offshore energy transition.
What are the requirements for subsurface geological hydrogen and carbon dioxide storage to enable the energy transition?
How do we ensure the environmental sustainability of carbon dioxide and hydrogen storage and offshore energy infrastructure?
What are the social and economic trade-offs and consequences of the offshore energy transition?
How do we translate research into stakeholder-relevant outcomes through coordination and co-design to support decision making?
These research questions will be addressed by the following work streams.
Subsurface geological storage for carbon dioxide and hydrogen (work package 1)
The energy transition requires temporary storage of hydrogen, to accommodate predictable seasonal demands for heating, and permanent storage of the much-increased volumes of carbon dioxide resulting from methane reformation and industrial processes. The innovative research that is essential to identify and appraise the additional offshore gas storage capacity and the potential interactions between carbon dioxide and hydrogen storage operations and subsurface pressure changes has yet to be undertaken.
Environmental sustainability of geological storage (work package 2)
The transition also requires the increased development on the seabed and of its subsurface, as well as in the water column, for example, floating windfarms. It is vital to ensure that this development does not exacerbate local and regional environmental stress, and that the ecological effects are sufficiently understood to identify opportunities for net gain. Whilst carbon dioxide sensitivities are well understood, the same cannot be said for hydrogen, nor for the cumulative effects on the seabed of multiple windfarms and other energy-related infrastructure. This presents an urgent need to address the evidence gap.
Social and economic trade-offs and consequences (work package 3)
Scientific research has developed our understanding of the natural capital and ecosystem services effects of offshore wind-energy production and perceptions of this technology. However, fundamental novel research is now required to address the evidence gap to understand how multiple uses of the seabed and its subsurface affects ecosystem services, natural capital, social licence and public perceptions. In particular, whether these perceptions are influenced by a person's 'ocean connectedness' — an emotional and cognitive bond to the marine environment.
Translating research into outcomes (work package 4)
The co-dependencies between the physical, environmental and social sciences are complex due to the interaction of the ocean system with the interests of local communities and key stakeholders. The challenges lie in bringing together the different types of geospatial information, models, ecosystem services, natural capital information and public attitudes. This needs to be done as part of an integrated, socio-spatial, decision-support framework that enables future planning regulation and policy decisions.
Our research programme
The MOET research programme (Figure 1) has been specifically designed to create an understanding of the key environmental, social and economic drivers that will support an effective and timely offshore energy transition. To do this and to create a new, national capability that will support future policymaking and marine planning, we will harness our internationally recognised expertise in:
subsurface and marine environmental science and technology
Support for this five-year project was awarded for multi-centre national capability research by NERC and commenced in 2022. An early decision by BGS, NOC and PML was to target MOET research in the offshore areas where the UK Track-1 and Track-2 Industrial Decarbonisation Clusters plan carbon dioxide storage (Figure 2). Initial research in the first two years of the project has focused on the southern North Sea to support stakeholders in the Teesside and Humberside industrial clusters. Research to support north-west England and Scottish clusters in the East Irish Sea and outer Moray Firth is conducted in years three to five. Outputs from the research programme are guided by a stakeholder group, initiated in the first year of the project, comprising invited and interested industry, regulatory, policy and decision- maker stakeholders.
The MOET project issues short bi-monthly email newsletters sharing progress and outputs from the research. Engagement with our stakeholder group includes online meetings and periodic in-person meetings. These are attended by project members to enable the team to respond to stakeholder questions and priorities and engage in wider discussions of project outputs. Future meetings will include more focused online sessions in response to stakeholder feedback to address specific points of interest.
If you would like to receive the MOET bi-monthly newsletters and join the stakeholder group contact Hazel Napier (hjb@bgs.ac.uk).
