New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has chosen projects totalling more than $2m to study environmental and commercial fishing topics to support responsible offshore wind development.
The five projects advance Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Green New Deal goal of 9GW of offshore wind by 2035 as codified under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
The selected projects include National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) and others, for the initiative, ‘Collaborative Development of Strategies and Tools to Address Commercial Fishing.’
The project, which has received $500,000, will address the need to understand and develop solutions for safe and efficient access to fishing grounds, while also ensuring that offshore energy projects meet their operational goals.
Another project of the five is led by the Biodiversity Research Institute, and is called ‘Multi-Scale Relationships Between Marine Predators and Forage Fish.
The award for $500,000 will go towards better understanding of the links between forage fish and seabirds and implications of offshore wind development on seabird behaviours and distribution.
NYSERDA chief executive Alicia Barton said: “These projects expand our efforts to mitigate potential impacts of offshore wind energy development and will help protect the state’s coastal resources and marine environment ensuring these resources can be enjoyed for generations to come.”
The authority’s efforts to analyse and collect new offshore environmental data began in 2017, via digital aerial surveys of birds, marine mammals, sharks and fish shoals.
The three-year survey concluded this past spring after collecting more than 3.5 million images across the New York Bight.
The survey was one of more than 20 studies NYSERDA has undertaken to provide current information about potential environmental and social sensitivities, economic and practical considerations, and regulatory requirements associated with offshore wind energy development identified under New York’s Offshore Wind Master Plan.
The five newly selected projects support independent research to build upon this scientific and technical foundation by further addressing environmental, maritime, economic and social issues.
According to NYSERDA advancing understanding of potential wildlife and fisheries interactions with offshore wind will support sound planning, address stakeholder concerns and accelerate offshore wind project development by identifying and reducing risks early in the process.
New York’s commitment to engaging with the commercial fishing industry and environmental organisations around offshore wind extends to a requirement for selected offshore wind developers to provide Fisheries and Environmental Mitigation Plans with their proposals.
Developers are also required to engage directly with the state’s industry-based technical working groups to evolve these plans throughout the development process.
In addition to these interactions, NYSERDA last month issued a request for proposals seeking an individual to undertake the role of a New York State offshore wind fisheries liaison.
The role has been created to assist the state in expanding its ongoing outreach to, and engagement with, commercial and recreation fishing communities in the New York Bight and the greater Mid-Atlantic and new England region.
To improve understanding of marine ecosystem function and the timing and relative density of wildlife including migratory whales, fish, birds and bats, NYSERDA also launched two meteorological and oceanographic buoys to study the conditions in the waters off the Atlantic coast of New York.
The metocean buoys are equipped with sensing equipment to enhance characterisation of wind, wave, ocean currents and wildlife to help increase certainty of development conditions to advance project layout, turbine siting and engineering, and seasonal construction schedules, ultimately reducing the cost of offshore wind energy.