Crown Estate Scotland is the latest key stakeholder to join the Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence programme led by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult.
Crown Estate Scotland has contributed £250,000 to support the Environmental Interactions Strategic Programme (EISP) – one of four collaborative, multi-year programmes that deliver research and thought leadership for the sector.
The EISP is designed to address identified knowledge gaps involving key environmental considerations of the UK’s floating offshore wind sector, of both an ecological and coexistence nature.
A key focus of this programme is to develop and expand the evidence-based body of knowledge informing the delivery of an efficient, timely and transparent environmental impact assessment process for floating offshore wind.
Successfully addressing areas of uncertainty and supporting the development of solutions can help to reduce costs and de-risk the future floating wind project development process.
Floating offshore wind development is growing rapidly globally and differs from fixed wind installations in that floating wind farms can encounter distinct environmental interaction issues involving high priority areas such as wet storage of assembled structures, mooring and anchoring systems, dynamic cables and coexistence with other sea users.
ORE Catapult’s principal portfolio manager for floating offshore wind Andrew Stormonth-Darling said: “The UK is already a world leader in the development of floating wind, but as we look to rapidly ramp up the commercial scale deployment of this technology we need to expand our understanding of how to identify, assess, and manage potential environmental interactions.
“As the organisation which manages Scotland’s seabed, Crown Estate Scotland has a vital role to play in enabling and supporting the sustainable development of floating wind.”
Head of Offshore Wind for Crown Estate Scotland Andy Riley said: “Adding more knowledge and expertise to support strategic collation of information to enable sustainable development of floating offshore wind is an ambition shared across the renewable energy sector, and we are pleased to play our part in this important programme of work.
“We believe the Environmental Interactions Strategic Programme will help tackle gaps in understanding, so that floating offshore wind projects can be developed and deployed more effectively .”