The Crown Estate is partnering with a range of expert bodies across the UK to launch five new projects to support the acceleration towards net zero, while enabling marine and coastal ecosystems to thrive.
The projects will aim to fill critical evidence gaps around the impacts of offshore wind farms on marine ecosystems, advance solutions to reduce those impacts, enhance access to marine data and explore the opportunity for co-location of fisheries and offshore wind farms.
These initiatives are backed by a £7.3m investment through the Offshore Wind Evidence and Change Programme (OWEC).
They are being led by the Offshore Wind Industry Council, Scottish Government Marine Directorate, Historic England, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult with support from numerous public, private and charitable organisations.
Subject to contracts, the projects are part of The Crown Estate’s £50m investment in the OWEC programme, delivered in partnership with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and Defra.
Through a mix of targeted studies, research projects, and comprehensive evidence-gathering, the programme aims to accelerate the deployment of offshore wind while supporting nature restoration.
By building a robust evidence base, OWEC aims to speed up the consenting process, enhance biodiversity, and provide a better understanding of the spatial needs of seabed user groups.
The five projects include developing a new low-impact scallop fishing technique using disco lights that led to a 500% increase in scallop catch, and want to roll this out at a regional scale.
This project, led by the Offshore Wind Industry Council, will provide the evidence base to demonstrate that static fishing methods can be used in areas where mobile methods might be restricted – like in offshore wind farms and marine protected areas.
The other projects aim to examine biodiversity changes causes by new offshore wind farms, improved heritage data, the piloting go offshore wind environmental mitigation measures, and research into underwater noise conditions in the Celtic Sea.