Environmental assessments regarding the discharge from the new municipal water treatment plant at Notanes in Øystese

Kvam herad i Hordaland skal bygge nytt kommunalt avløpsreinseanlegg på Notaneset ved munningen av Vikeelva i Øystese. Resipient for avlaupsvatnet er Øystesebukta, der Øysteseelva og Vikeelva renn ut. Foreliggande rapport gjev greie for miljøtilhøve, målingar, vurderingar og simuleringar for ulike utsleppsløysingar. Utgangspunktet for plassering av utsleppet er i området aust-nordaust for Lundaneset. Straumen der går for det meste mot sør, bort frå elvemunningane. Sjiktinga i sjøen er slik at utsleppsvatn frå 30 m djup og djupare ikkje stig så høgt opp at det kan interferere med vatn i elvemunningane. Rapporten tilrår å legge utsleppet på minimum 35 m djup i området utanfor Lundaneset.The municipality of Kvam in Hordaland county, Norway, plans to build a new treatment plant for most of their municipal water. The plant will be located at Notanes, on the bank of the Vikeelva river. Also the larger river Øyseseelva ends up in the adjacent bay Øystesebukta, which will receive the cleaned water discharge from the plant, according to the permit issued by the County Sheriff, Fylkesmannen. Kvam municipality asked NIVA, the Norwegian Institute for Water Research, to make an assessment on the safe location of the point of discharge, with special emphasis on avoiding interference with the two rivers. The present report summarizes the results of the assessments.Kvam herad, ved Norconsult A

Utslipp av kommunalt avløpsvann fra Askøy kommune

På oppdrag for Askøy kommune er det gjort undersøkelser omkring de utslippene av kommunalt avløpsvann ved Erdal, Florvåg, Kleppestø og Strusshamn. Filmopptak ved bruk av ROV viser noen mindre tekniske problemer ved Erdal, Florvåg og Strusshamn, men praktisk talt ingen visuell forurensning av bunnen ved utslippspunktene. Undersøkelse av avløpsvannets spredning med sporstoff og simulering med matematisk modell viser at fortynningen av avløpsvannet er så stor at utslippene ikke gjensidig påvirker hverandre. Utslippet i 7 m dyp ved Kleppestø er imidlertid svært uheldig plassert. For helhetens skyld nevnes at en samtidig undersøkelse av sedimenter ved utslippene viste generelt lave konsentrsjoner av miljøgifter. Bunnfaunaen ved Strusshamn og det grunne utslippet på Kleppestø viste påvirkning av næringssalter og organisk stoff, mens faunaen ved de tre andre utslippene var upåvirket

Heat energy from datacenters:an opportunity for marine energy

The world as we know it faces a severe threat from global warming. In November 2019, 11,000 scientists signed a warning on the effects of climate change, stating that the world “must quickly implement massive energy efficiency and conservation practices and must replace fossil fuels with low-carbon renewables”. Vital to our argument is that these words relate to both energy-saving measures and to energy production. This paper shows how a large actor in energy consumption – datacenters – can work together with a promising technology in renewable, marine, energy – ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) technology – to decrease the CO2 footprint of mankind while enabling sustainable growth

NeXOS - Next generation Low-Cost Multifunctional Web Enabled Ocean Sensor Systems Empowering Marine, Maritime and Fisheries Management.

This report is Deliverable 8.2 in the NeXOS project. It describes the efforts made in validating the new sensors systems developed in NeXOS, namely three different types of optical sensors, two types of acoustic sensors, sensors for fisheries and the new anti-fouling system. Additionally, data availability and timeliness though the Sensor Web Enablement software/hardware features, developed by NeXOS, was validated. The validations took place on different observation platforms operated by the NeXOS Consortium, under realistic user scenarios, in real sea conditions over a limited time. Validation serves as the final step before the demonstrations in Work Package 9. The systems described herein, were functionally and scientifically validated in the sea, however, not necessarily, where the demonstrations will take place. All systems passed the scientific validation criteria used in the NeXOS project. The results are presented in a template format in order for make overview and reporting easier

Norwegian fjords as potential sites for CO2 experiments. A preliminary feasibility study

Project manager Lars G. GolmenWhile deep open ocean locations probably will be those finally selected if large-scale CO2 deepwater disposal in general will come into effect, deep Norwegian fjords may represent better locations for doing small-scale experiments with CO2 deposition. In-situ experiments to study plume dynamics and chemical/biological impact are seriously needed. This initial feasibility study treets the physical, biological and legal constraints that an experiment in a fjord will have to adapt to. Several smaller or larger fjord basins with depths exceeding 500 m exist in western Norway. The report gives guidelines to what steps should be further taken in order to establish an in-situ CO2 experiment in a fjord. 26 different basins have been identified in terms of max. depths, municipal adherence etc. Variations in deepwater hydrographic conditions are relatively small from fjord to fjord. Data on the dynamical states as well as on deep water biology are in general lacking, and is suggested to perform a baseline study in a limited selection of fjords that will be further evaluated prior to a final selection. User conflicts and legal aspects must not be overlooked, and a complete EIA study will most probablly be required before starting any CO2 experiment in a fjord.NED

Effects of CO2 on benthic biota: an in situ benthic chamber experiment in Storfjorden (Norway)

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) methods, either sub-seabed or in ocean depths, introduces risk of CO2 leakage and subsequent interaction with the ecosystem. It is therefore important to obtain information on possible effects of CO2. In situ CO2 exposure experiments were carried out twice for 10 days during 2005 using a Benthic Chamber system at 400 m depth in Storfjorden, Norway. pCO2 in the water above the sediment in the chambers was controlled at approximately 500, 5000 and 20,000 μatm, respectively. This article describes the experiment and the results from measured the biological responses within the chamber sediments. The results show effects of elevated CO2 concentrations on biological processes such as increased nanobenthos density. Methane production and sulphate reduction was enhanced in the approximately 5000 μatm chamber

OTEC matters 2015

For mankind as a whole, and in many respects, the world is becoming a better place each year. In both rich and poor countries the standard of living has improved steadily for a very long time. This progress has a serious drawback, the negative effects on Earth’s climate. It is clear that the only way we can live sustainably is by consuming much less. However, this is not enough: there is an undeniable need for new energy sources. As the world’s population grows, many countries will also face more severe shortages of food and of fresh, disease-free water. Most developing countries are situated in tropical regions and are therefore hit hard by increasing tropical storms and similar weather-based disasters, adding to these problems. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) technology has been proven to be an ideal candidate for addressing and resolving all of these problems for small island developing states (SIDS), and a few months ago, the EU set aside€72 million euros for constructing OTEC plants outside Martinique. Built on a much larger scale, OTEC can, as the only technology known to man, supply the world with its total energy and fresh water needs, increase seafood production many times over, and cooling off parts of the sea surface when they become too hot – all this without any atmospheric emissions. Thus, it is with great excitement that this very first issue of the only journal dedicated to OTEC is being published. The publication covers many facets of OTEC and related matters, such as OTEC technology, sustainability including gender and other social studies, renewable energy, marine biology, metallurgy, and research on developing countries. The publication is aimed at two different audiences, scientists directly or indirectly involved with OTEC technology, and a more diverse group of people consisting of scientists from non-technical fields, industry people, politicians, investors, educators, and more. This volume is published as part of the publication series of the University of Borås, a progressive Swedish university with a high interest in and knowledge about sustainability