Understanding the impact of floating wind farms on the marine environment

Plymouth scientists are leading an innovative new programme, gathering evidence on the potential for ecological and environmental effects from future floating offshore wind farms (FLOW) being proposed for the Celtic Sea region.

Ambitious targets for the expansion of offshore renewable energy have been set in response to the climate emergency and concerns over future energy security and costs.

The British Energy Security Strategy (BESS), published in 2022, recommended the deployment of up to 50GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.

This expansion includes the development of FLOW infrastructure in deeper water environments, which accounts for 5GW of the total expansion target. However, the wider impacts of such an expansion are yet to be fully explored.

The EQUIFy project – funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and The Crown Estate through the Ecological Effects of Floating Offshore Wind (ECOFlow) programme – aims to address that.

Using an array of modelling approaches, autonomous monitoring systems and decision support tools, EQUIFy will provide a transferable evidence framework that improves current understanding of the likely future effects of FLOW, with a focus on planned developments in the Celtic Sea. It also aims to provide the tools needed for the sustainable development of FLOW in other regions.

This knowledge will span a range of scales, from individual turbines to the whole of the UK and Northwest European shelf seas. It will also provide this understanding within the context of a changing climate and under the changing use of our seas that upscaling FLOW will inevitably drive.

The framework will inform future developments by guiding optimal design and investment decisions, maximising the benefits of FLOW while minimising detrimental ecosystem impacts. This will inform key policy areas and marine planners, helping to simplify and potentially accelerate the licensing and consenting process to support the delivery of the UK’s energy and decarbonisation ambitions in a manner that enhances nature recovery, marine net gain and coexistence with other users of the sea.

Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) is leading the EQUIFy project, which also involves researchers from the University of Plymouth alongside a consortium of experts from universities and industry around the UK.

Professor Matthew Palmer, project lead for EQUIFy and lead for Environmental Digital Science at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, commented: “EQUIFy brings together expertise from across engineering, environmental and social sciences to build on the best emerging knowledge of how wind farms are effecting our seas. Through co-development with stakeholders, we will deliver new modelling and monitoring capabilities that are urgently required to understand how future upscaling of offshore wind and the move to floating turbines in deeper waters will impact the marine environment at all scales. We will establish new evidence on ecosystem sensitivity to change, and consider how resulting ecological effects have the potential to reinforce or offset changes from other pressures, such as from fishing, transport and climate change. Our work will focus on consolidating such knowledge to deliver decision support tools to underpin future UK growth and leadership in a sustainable and equitable Green Energy transition”.

Professor Deborah Greaves OBE FREng, Director of the Centre for Decarbonisation of Offshore Renewable Energy at the University of Plymouth and lead of the national Supergen ORE Hub, added: “Multi-disciplinary collaborations between engineers and ecologists are critical if we are to ensure that designs for future floating offshore wind structures and farms are assembled in harmony with nature. The new tools and approaches being developed through the EQUIFy project will inform better understanding of the interactions between innovative new floating offshore wind farms and ecosystems, particularly those in deeper waters outside the scope of existing fixed offshore wind farms. With Plymouth playing such a prominent role in this initiative, it also enhances the city’s expertise and influence in this emerging and important sector.”

EQUIFy Team

• Plymouth Marine Laboratory

• University of Plymouth

• University of Oxford

• University of the Highlands and Islands

• University of Aberdeen

• National Oceanography Centre

• Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science

EQUIFy Partners

• Celtic Sea Power

• Simply Blue Group

• TwinHub Ltd

• Met Office

• Flotation Energy

• Natural England

• University of Liverpool

• Marine Directorate

• Sonardyne International Ltd