Environmental Monitoring of Wave Energy Devices in Portugal
Ocean News
WavEC’s ROV setup and team at the WaveRoller test site
WESE project announces the completion of further environmental monitoring of wave energy devices, this time in Portugal.
The WESE project is devoted to the collection, processing, analysis and sharing of environmental data from wave energy devices currently operating at sea, representing different types of technologies and locations (onshore, nearshore, and offshore), therefore, acting on different types of marine environments that can potentially be affected by wave energy projects.
Following the Monitoring Plans developed earlier in the project (see Deliverable 2.1, report available at the project website), a two-day monitoring campaign was undertaken by WavEC Offshore Renewables around the WaveRoller device of AW-Energy (Finland) in Peniche (Portugal).
On the first day (16th of October 2020), acoustic monitoring was performed simultaneously to the decommissioning of WaveRoller (for maintenance purposes) to assess the noise emitted during the activities. Underwater sound emissions were monitored by means of static underwater measurements for a period of 09-10 hours. Static measurements consist in the deployment of a passive acoustic sensors moored in a specific location and for a long period of time. Salinity and water temperature profiles were performed as complementary data of underwater noise measurements.
WavEC’s ROV moving towards the WaveRoller device (emerged section visible in the background)
On the second day (17th October 2020), a ROV (Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle) campaign was undertaken for the seafloor integrity monitoring to allow evaluating possible alterations of the seafloor by the presence of the device and by mooring cables. WavEC’s ROV was used to collect videos (each about 30 min long) along five transects/areas near to the WaveRoller. It included the device and its foundation, mooring cables and the electrical cable.
The analysis of the data collected will support the development of models for the analysis of potential cumulative pressures and environmental impacts of future larger scale wave energy deployments.
