Ocean Winds has unveiled a biodiversity report showing its WindFloat Atlantic floating offshore wind farm can coexist with marine ecosystems.
Ocean Winds said the study is based on eight years of environmental monitoring at the 25MW project off Viana do Castelo in Portugal.
The company added that more than 270 species have been identified in the project area, with increased abundance of octopus and fish species observed.
The report concludes that the wind farm has not disrupted ecosystem functioning and has created local ecological benefits through reef and exclusion zone effects.
“The WindFloat Atlantic biodiversity monitoring program offers valuable evidence from a floating offshore wind farm, showing that the project generates measurable ecosystem service outcomes – including enhanced fish and invertebrate abundance through reef and refuge effects – and highlighting the importance of sustained environmental monitoring to inform the responsible scaling of floating wind technology,” said Teresa Simas, chief executive of Blue Grid.
“The monitoring of WindFloat Atlantic has been an excellent opportunity to increase the knowledge about the marine ecosystem of northern Portugal and to better understand how to reconcile the development of floating wind farms with biodiversity conservation and fisheries,” said Lino Costa and Bernardo Quintella, senior researchers at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon.
Ocean Winds said no significant negative impacts were detected across monitored species, including marine mammals, birds and bats.
Catarina Rei, permitting and environment director at Ocean Winds, said the findings provide evidence that floating offshore wind can deliver positive ecological effects alongside renewable energy generation.