The Wave Energy in Southern Europe (WESE) project has completed environmental monitoring activities around a wave energy converter in Peniche, Portugal.
The WESE project is devoted to the collection, processing, analysis and sharing of environmental data from wave energy devices currently operating at sea, representing different types of technologies and locations – onshore, nearshore, and offshore.
A study was undertaken by WavEC Offshore Renewables around the WaveRoller device in Peniche, as part of WESE.
Studies included acoustic monitoring, performed simultaneously to the decommissioning of WaveRoller to assess the noise emitted during the activities.
Static measurements consist in the deployment of a passive acoustic sensors moored in a specific location and for a long period of time.
Salinity and water temperature profiles were performed as complementary data of underwater noise measurements.
A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) campaign was also undertaken for seabed integrity monitoring to evaluate possible alterations of the seafloor by the presence of the device and its mooring cables.
WavEC’s ROV was used to collect videos along five areas near to the WaveRoller.
The analysis of the data collected will support the development of models for the analysis of potential cumulative pressures and environmental impacts of future larger scale wave energy deployments.