Two new research projects will investigate the impacts of large-scale development of wind energy along the coast and offshore on migrating birds and marine life.
Photo: Svein-Håkon Lorentsen / NINA.
To develop a sustainable offshore wind energy industry in Norway there is a need to understand how they impact birds, fish and other ecosystem components in the ocean and along the coast. The Norwegian Institute of Nature Research (NINA) is involved in two new research projects that will investigate the consequences of large-scale development of wind energy along the coast and offshore.
–The knowledge gathered from these projects will be important to ensure that the development of offshore wind energy in the coming years will take sufficient considerations to the environment, says Svein-Håkon Lorentsen, Research Director in NINA.
Bird migration and wind energy development
One major potential cumulative conflict between coastal and offshore wind energy development and wildlife arises from the large numbers of migrating birds crossing the North Sea and passing along the Norwegian coastline twice a year between breeding and wintering areas.
– NINA has succeeded in securing funding from the Research Council of Norway for a collaborative project to specifically address the challenges relating to bird migration and offshore and coastal wind energy development, says Roel May, Senior Research Scientist in NINA.
He will lead the project called VisAviS (2022-2026), which has a strong involvement of stakeholders from the offshore wind industry, umbrella organizations and the energy and environmental authorities. The project will use state-of-the-art knowledge on bird migration to develop a visualization tool for impacts assessments.
Floating wind energy and marine life
The Institute for Marine Research has in collaboration with among others NINA succeeded in securing funding from the Research Council of Norway for a collaborative project to understand the impact of floating wind farms on marine life and co-existence with the fisheries industry. The project called WindSys (2022-2025) is a collaboration between key scientific, private and governmental actors and aims to investigate and document the impacts of the placement of floating wind turbines at sea.
– The project will produce state-of-art knowledge on ecosystem effects as well as design robust and cost-effective monitoring methods, says May.
WindSys and VisAviS will complement research to be executed as part of the Centre for Environment-friendly Energy research Northwind.
Contact: Roel May