PNNL

Zhaoqing Yang, chief scientist for coastal ocean modeling at Pacific National Laboratory (PNNL) in Sequim, WA, was recently selected to serve as the lead guest editor for a special issue of the Renewable Energy journal, titled “Ocean Renewable Energy: Resource Characterization, Technology Development, and Interactions.”

Only the second special edition on ocean renewable energy in the Renewable Energy journal’s history, this edition consists of 20 papers covering broad topics, including harvestable marine energy resources, the development of marine energy technologies, and exploring the environmental impacts of marine energy extraction to help develop mitigation strategies. The first special edition on ocean renewable energy was published three years ago in 2018.

As lead guest editor, Yang is responsible for working with a team to identify the top research in the field, invite contributors, select appropriate reviewers, and make sure final manuscripts undergo a rigorous review process. The final, selected papers span not only different subfields, but also geographic locations across the globe.

“More than 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by ocean. As climate change accelerates, marine renewable energy increasingly represents a solution to help reduce carbon emissions,” Yang said. “We’ve invited contributors from across the globe to reflect the international interest in this area.”

At PNNL, Yang leads the modeling effort on the high-resolution regional resource characterization and assessment of tidal-stream and wave energy for the entire U.S. exclusive economic zone, funded by DOE’s Water Power Technologies Office. In addition to his position at PNNL, Yang is also a Distinguished Faculty Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington.

Using state-of-the-art numerical models, his research has spanned marine and offshore wind energy, coastal hydrodynamics, and transport processes and their response to climate change and anthropogenic disturbances, including impacts on coastal ecosystems and infrastructure, storm surge and coastal flooding, scalable macroalgae production, and plastic debris transport in waterways and coastal waters. Yang and his team have developed a suite of high-resolution tidal, wave, and storm surge models for not only marine energy exploitation but also coastal hazard assessment in Puget Sound.

Yang has served as a member of the editorial board for Renewable Energy since 2016. He also serves as a member of the editorial board for the International Marine Energy Journal, the Journal of Coastal Research, and the Journal of Marine Sciences and Engineering. Previously, he served on the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council’s Committee on Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy Assessment and as the editor of the book, “Marine Renewable Energy Resource Characterization and Physical Effects,” published in 2017.

“Learning is a never-ending process, regardless of the success you might achieve or your age,” Yang said. “This special edition is an opportunity to attract high-power papers and bring together potential peers across sub-disciplines and geographic boundaries. I consider this an important moment to shine a light on all the incredible scientific advances in marine renewable energy being made at PNNL and across the other national laboratories on the international stage.”

The Renewable Energy journal is an international, multidisciplinary journal that seeks to promote and disseminate knowledge on the various topics and technologies of renewable energy systems and components. It serves researchers, engineers, economists, manufacturers, nongovernmental organizations, associations, and societies as a leading peer-reviewed platform for renewable energy.

Ruth Branch, Mithun Deb, Gabriel Garcia Medina, Taiping Wang, and Zhaoqing Yang are lead or co-authors on four papers in this special issue. Ruth Branch and Mithun Deb are both postdoctorate researchers, and Gabriel Garcia Medina and Taiping Wang are Earth scientists in PNNL’s Coastal Modeling Group.