Vattenfall has announced the first successful projects for its offshore wind research programme. The socio-economic impact of offshore wind farms is also to be examined as part of the € 3million scientific research and monitoring fund to study the environmental effects of offshore wind in a real-time environment. The diverse range of projects selected will be based at Vattenfall’s European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) in Aberdeen Bay.
The successful recipients of a share in the dedicated € 3m EOWDC fund, up to half of which is being provided by the European Union, include:
- The River Dee Trust, Aberdeenshire, and Marine Scotland Science - Assessing the interactions between salmon and sea trout with offshore wind technology.
- SMRU Consulting and the University of St Andrews, both St Andrews - The project involves undertaking a comprehensive study of bottlenose dolphin movements throughout the development and part of the operational phase of the EOWDC to offer greater insight into bottlenose dolphins.
- MacArthur Green, Glasgow - Measuring connectivity between auk special protection areas populations and offshore wind farms, and tracking non-breeding season movements of adult auks. As such, the project aims to demonstrate that this could reduce future uncertainty in impact assessments and improve understanding of how auks engage and co-exist with offshore wind farms. This project will fund a PhD student to work with the research team.
- Oxford Brookes University, Oxford – The socio-economic impact of offshore wind on the human environment. The project will analyse the socio-economic effects of the EOWDC from the construction stage through to becoming fully operational to help better understand how offshore wind developments can be maximised to benefit the region and local communities.