Innovation Exchange Challenge: Acquiring actionable ecological data in offshore wind farms

Background

One of the key barriers to acquiring offshore wind farm consent conditions is lack of data on specific environmental impacts. Uncertainty on the scale of an impact is a difficult argument to make when applying for consent, with authorities and stakeholders leaning towards caution and taking a worst-case scenario approach to ensure impacts are not underestimated. Therefore, work that goes some way to improving certainty of key data gaps is important for the future of the offshore wind industry. Ocean Winds is in a rare position to conduct monitoring on offshore wind farms both during the development/construction phase and the operational phase. During the operational phase ecology monitoring is sometimes mandated by a regulator to ensure ongoing protection of specific species identified in the wind farm area during the development phase.

The Challenge

Ocean Winds is seeking a solution which sets up a ‘one-stop-shop’ piece of equipment/technology that can be used to add additional monitoring capability of various environmental receptors, especially below the water’s surface where species monitoring is more difficult.

The key topic areas where additional data would be beneficial are:

• Marine Mammals – Population/behavioural data.
• Fish Movements – Targeting diadromous species and other species that are suited to carry acoustic tags. Improving understanding of migration routes and usage of offshore wind farm sites.
• Fish Populations – Data to improve the understanding of the quantity of fish within the offshore wind farm to support the production vs aggregation debate.

Secondary additional data which could also be recorded would include:

• Oceanographic data including sea surface temperature, chlorophyll or phytoplankton levels, salinity etc.
• Colonisation of hard structures, including detection on Non-Native Invasive species.
• Electro Magnetic Field (EMF) Detection.

It is expected but not compulsory that solutions would derive from existing methods already used to collect this type of information, including:

• Passive Acoustic Monitoring (like CPOD/FPODs) for detection of Marine Mammal species.
• Acoustic telemetry receivers, working in partnership with fish tagging projects.
• Sonar that can identify fish shoals.

The innovative aspect of this solution is the requirement for multiple data collection methods on one piece or a grouping of equipment. The solution can be provided in any form that allows the collection of the data, and may include equipment such as monitoring stations, buoys or unmanned mobile craft.

Eligibility

Entrants to this competition must be:

• Established businesses, academic institutions, start-ups, SMEs, or individual entrepreneurs.
• UK based or have the intention to set up a UK base.

Rewards & Market Opportunity

Successful applicants will be given an opportunity to pitch to Ocean Winds. Selected solutions may be trialled by Ocean Winds with potential for further adoption if trials are successful.

The solution has potential to be deployed across Ocean Winds sites and is applicable to the entire global offshore wind industry.

The benefits package for a successful applicant may also include the following from Innovate UK Business Connect:

• Support identifying the route for development of a prototype or pilot.
• Technical support.
• Invitation to attend or present at Innovate UK Business Connect events
• Investor introductions – if investment is required.
• Support if any Innovate UK or similar competitions are relevant.