Assessing the potential for offshore infrastructure as platforms for environmental monitoring.
Abstract
This project was established to investigate the feasibility of using offshore assets for hosting environmental monitoring sensors. The first phase of the project delivered a technical review of the available technologies that exist in the market currently, and the second phase facilitated a technical engagement process with offshore wind farm developers and environmental sensor manufacturers to determine the technical, practical, and logistical considerations of retrofitting and integrating sensors into turbine designs, as well as the potential challenges. It was found that there are opportunities for using existing and future offshore infrastructure to support wider offshore environmental monitoring, particularly in respect of ornithology, bats, marine mammals, and fish. In many cases further work would be required to address existing practical challenges and uncertainties, therefore collaboration between regulators, key environmental stakeholders, wind farm developers, and sensor manufacturers will be key to addressing these challenges going forward.