The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and consultancy Normandeau Associates have reached the halfway point in a three-year environmental study aimed at advancing offshore wind development off the the US state’s Atlantic coast.
Data collected on wildlife resources from the aerial survey is “helping promote environmentally responsible development of the state’s offshore wind resource while advancing New York’s development of 2400MW of offshore wind and establishing the state as a global hub for offshore wind”, said NYSERDA.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo has set a target for half of the state’s electricity to come from renewable resources by 2030 and has pledged two solicitations in 2018 and 2019 to secure a combined total of at least 800MW of offshore wind power.
A total of 12 studies are being conducted by Normandeau in collaboration with ultra-high-resolution survey specialist APEM. Analysis has now been completed for the sixth survey, marking the halfway point for the project.
The research covers the New York Offshore Planning Area, which spans over 25,000 square km of the New York Bight.
Data collected is helping the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management identify sites for new wind energy areas, said NYSERDA.
NYSERDA president and chief executive Alicia Barton said: “Collecting this data is crucial in the state’s effort to provide regulators and offshore wind developers with new scientific data they can use to help avoid the areas that support the richest diversity of marine life.
“The aerial survey is one of the more than 20 robust studies the state has undertaken to demonstrate carrying out governor Cuomo’s pledge that the offshore wind resource will be developed in an environmentally responsible manner.”
Normandeau senior ornithologist Julia Robinson Willmott said: “We are able to map each animal very precisely including determining the flight heights of birds.
“Some of the interesting behaviour we have observed includes predatory sharks controlling the configuration of large fish shoals.”
Image: NYSERDA
Eye in the sky on NY wind drive
By EBS