COWRIE E-Newsletter February 2007

In this issue:

Working Group Activities
  • Environment
    • New research projects selected
    • Progress on existing projects
    • Projects at outline stage
  • Data Management
    • Developer Data and Information Seminar
  • Education and Communications
    • Graduate and Postgraduate Awards for Environmental Research into Marine Renewable Energy
    • COWRIE Website
    • COWRIE Seminar at the 28th BWEA Conference in Glasgow, October 2006
    • COWRIE presentation at the Conference on the Danish Monitoring Programme, Helsingør, November 2006
Key Meetings and Conferences in 2007
New Publications Available
  • Biola report: Effects of offshore windfarm noise on marine mammals and fish (July 2006)
  • Use of aerial surveys to detect bird displacement by offshore windfarms (October 2006)
  • Historic environment guidance note for the offshore renewable energy sector (January 2007)

Working Group Activities

GeoData and Naturebureau reappointed for Data Management and Secretariat services

COWRIE has retained GeoData Institute and NatureBureau, respectively, to deal with data management issues and to provide Secretariat support for the Board, Working Groups and research contract management.
 

Environment Technical Working Group

New research projects selected

The Environment Technical Working Group (ETWG) – please see http://www.offshorewind.co.uk/Overview/Enviroment.aspx for a list of Working Group members - met four times between April 2006 and January 2007.

Several projects are being taken forward as a priority:

  • Noise impacts from offshore windfarm construction on marine mammals – methodologies for measuring and assessing potential changes in marine mammal behaviour, abundance or distribution arising from construction activities at offshore windfarms;
  • In-fill radar scoping study for the Greater Wash in collaboration with the MoD;

Two other projects are currently going through a tendering process (with work scheduled to start in early March 2007). These are:

  • Assessment of the potential for acoustic deterrents to mitigate the impact on marine mammals of underwater noise arising from the construction of offshore wind farms;
  • Assessment and costing of potential engineering solutions for the mitigation of the impacts of underwater noise arising from the construction of offshore wind farms.

Progress on Existing Projects

The second stage of the Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) study has now started, and is being led by a consortium formed of Cranfield University, CEFAS and CMACS. This mesocosm, or “live” experiment, hopes to definitively determine whether electro-receptive elasmobranchs respond to anthropogenic EMFs of the type emitted by offshore wind farm sub-sea cables.
For interim report, see: http://www.offshorewind.co.uk/Research/ResearchAreas/
ElectromagneticFields/EMFPhase2.aspx

The project on potential impact of underwater noise and vibration, which started in 2003, is near completion this spring. Subacoustech have recently completed a set of construction noise measurements during impact piling operation at the Burbo Bank offshore windfarm, and issued a summary report on the Source Level noise and propagation of the underwater sound with range. Subacoustech have also completed a set of measurements of the underwater noise from operation of the Barrow offshore windfarm. They are now undertaking the detailed analysis of the measured noise and estimating the range over which the noise remains above the ambient sea noise, and any behavioural impact on marine species in close proximity to the turbines.
For interim reports and progress, see: http://www.offshorewind.co.uk/Research/ResearchAreas/
SubSeaAcousticNoise.aspx

Oxford Archaeology has recently been awarded a contract to produce a guidance document that qualifies how cumulative impact from offshore renewable energy developments may have a detrimental effect on the historic environment. The project should be completed by the end of August 2007.

COWRIE is in the process of organising a workshop on cumulative impacts and birds. This will be held on Thursday 3rd May 2007 in Peterborough, venue to be confirmed. The event, involving developers, regulators and stakeholders, will explore issues such as how to deal with incremental changes and how to assess carrying capacity, and will discuss the approaches being applied elsewhere. The main outcome sought from the workshop will be an agreed approach to cumulative impact assessment, ideally one that can be applied nationally (i.e. in all three strategic windfarm areas and in Scotland).
 

Projects at outline stage

Several more projects are being considered by smaller specialist sub-groups drawn from the ETWG, and specifications are being drawn up. These projects relate to:

  • The use of radar techniques and field testing;
  • Bird population viability analysis;
  • Socio-economic impacts;
  • Seascape issues;
  • Study on public acceptance of offshore windfarms post-development.

For future tender opportunities, please visit: http://www.offshorewind.co.uk/KnowledgeBase/Tenders.aspx
 

Data Management Working Group

In the last few months, effort has gone into making the Data Management website more complete and consistent graphically, as well as improving the visual design of the catalogue. This is largely complete.
The search interface is also largely complete, ensuring ease of use and consistency. Contextual data sets have been updated and better integrated within the site, such as background mapping, sea areas, licence areas, place names.

Metadata entry and live validation and data upload interfaces are robust and user-friendly. Initial pilot testing uncovered some issues in this area and improvements in this area are nearly complete so that more intensive piloting can commence. This will initially be in-house, but shortly to be released to pilot industry users.

The management of UK Gemini based metadata is complete, with the last few issues relating to user-friendliness currently being addressed. Intensive effort is going into completing the management of much more complex FGDC based metadata. This is to cater for the more spatial-related data that developers will have collated. Initial testing has proved positive and this interface should be ready for piloting in the next few days, pending a few bug-fixes and user interface issues.

Date for your Diary:

COWRIE Developer Data and Information Seminar, London

The GeoData Institute, responsible for the COWRIE Data Management and Coordination Programme, is organising a Data and Information Seminar on Monday 19th March 2007. This event, intended for developers only, will launch the new metadata entry interface soon to be hosted on the COWRIE website, and will provide developers with guidance on data handling, and will enable them to set up their own data management plans.
 

Education & Communications Working Group

New Graduate and Postgraduate Awards for Environmental Research into Marine Renewable Energy

COWRIE Ltd announced an annual Students Award competition for the best individual project or thesis work in environmental science related to the marine renewables industry. Submission for this year is now closed, and the winners will be announced in February 2007. The next call for applications will be in October 2007.
Full story and nomination form:
http://www.offshorewind.co.uk/KnowledgeBase/
StudentCompetition.aspx

COWRIE Website

We have enlisted David Milborrow to provide technical input to a refreshed version of the website www.offshorewind.co.uk We intend to provide a more interactive gateway for authoritative information about offshore renewables in the UK. With an improved “magazine” style it will feature information about the industry, developments and the significance of the offshore programme which will be of interest to specialist audiences as well as the general public. We intend to provide links to developers’ own websites as well as relevant interest groups and statutory bodies. It will also provide a seamless link to the Data Management website which will become the source for all environmental data and information generated under Round II of the marine renewables leases.

COWRIE session at the 28th BWEA Conference in Glasgow

Despite competing with other sessions, about 40 delegates attended the session.. Presentations were considered interesting and informative. Support for the event was gratefully acknowledged and the prospect of similar sessions at future BWEA events noted. We are currently planning a collaborative COWRIE event with RAG – September to be confirmed.
Full details: http://www.bwea.com/28/index.html

27th-29th November 2006 Helsingør Conference on the Danish Monitoring Programme - Final Results

The Secretariat represented Cowrie at this event which reported on the environmental monitoring programme commissioned by the Danish government to support its offshore programme. The programme of work was funded through a levy on energy bills. The programme used a statistically-robust BACI (before, after, control, impact) approach from 1999 to 2005, with surveys undertaken pre-, during (2002-03) and post construction. The Conference presented the results and identified additional areas requiring attention. Presentations on bird monitoring noted that the collision risk, which varies between sites and species, appears to be small; strong avoidance of turbines observed. Thus, the impact of the individual Danish wind farms was primarily one of habitat loss, displacement and increased energetic costs, but the cumulative impact of several farms along a flyway could be significant: this difficult issue requires further study, as does the minimum necessary distance between turbine blocks to prevent flight barriers for different species. Socio-economic perceptions were interesting: >80% of the population expressed support for windfarms, with greatest support (86%) from the local community closest to the Horns Rev windfarm.

The final panel identified five priorities for discussion: (i) the length of post-construction monitoring necessary to assess windfarm impacts; (ii) the impact of new habitat provided by scour protection; (iii) the need for an experimental approach to determine the impacts of electro-magnetic fields (EMF); (iv) the identification of bird species of greatest concern at different sites (including the application of spatial planning and effective strategic environmental assessments to ensure that sensitive areas are avoided from the outset); and (v) the need to address cumulative impacts.

The meeting was well-attended by scientists and developers from Europe and the USA. Considerable interest was expressed in the work of COWRIE, a summary of which was presented in poster form by the Secretariat. The new COWRIE EMF mesocosm research project was introduced to participants during the concluding discussion, which identified EMF as a top research priority.

This workshop allowed COWRIE to gain an insight of the gaps that need prioritising. The ETWG was pleased to see that from the five priorities put forward, two of these issues were already being addressed by COWRIE (EMF and cumulative impacts).

Key Meetings and Conferences in 2007

16 January – COWRIE Board meeting, London

23 January – COWRIE EWG meeting, London

20-21 February - 2nd Scientific Conference on the use of Offshore Wind Energy, Berlin

22-23 February – EU Policy workshop on the impacts of Offshore Wind developments, Berlin

14 March PM– Marine Stakeholders Event – Sharing the Sea, Westminster (run by BWEA, sponsored by COWRIE)15 March - BWEA Wave and Tidal Energy Conference, Westminster

15 March - BWEA Wave and Tidal Energy Conference, Westminster

19 March – COWRIE Data Management Seminar for developers, London

25 April – COWRIE Board meeting, London

3 May – COWRIE Workshop on cumulative impacts and birds, Peterborough

10 May – COWRIE EWG meeting, London

23-24 May - All Energy 2007, Aberdeen

7 June – BWEA’s 6th Annual Offshore Wind Conference, Liverpool

September TBC – RAG/COWRIE research dissemination event

12 September – COWRIE Board meeting, London

18 September – COWRIE EWG meeting, London

20 September - Scottish Renewables Marine Energy Seminar, Dundee

9-11 October - BWEA29 BWEA Annual Conference and Exhibition, Glasgow

4-6 December - European Offshore Wind Conference and Exhibition, Germany

11 December – COWRIE Board meeting, London

Late 2007/ Early 2008 TBC – Joint RAG/COWRIE research dissemination event

New Publications Available

Biola report: Effects of offshore windfarm noise on marine mammals and fish (July 2006)

COWRIE is pleased to announce the publication of the report by Biola (Biologisch-landschaftsökologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft).

This study, based on an earlier report in German as part of EIA work for windfarms in German waters, comprises an assessment of noise during construction / operation based on measurements from across Europe, the transmission of the noise and definition of zones of noise influence on marine mammals and fish.
Full story and report: http://www.offshorewind.co.uk/KnowledgeBase/
BIOLAReport6thJuly2006.aspx

Use of aerial surveys to detect bird displacement by offshore windfarms (October 2006)

This report prepared by The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is available and makes use of previously collected aerial survey data, and uses a statistical technique called power analyses to assess whether current aerial survey methods allow changes in bird numbers to be detected, given that there are large background fluctuations in seabird numbers at any given site.
Full story and report: http://www.offshorewind.co.uk/KnowledgeBase/
BirdDisplacement.aspx

Historic environment guidance for the offshore renewable energy sector (January 2007)

This report prepared by Wessex Archaeology Ltd is now available.
This generic guidance document relates to the survey, appraisal and monitoring of the historic environment during the development of offshore renewable energy generation projects in the United Kingdom.
Full story and report: http://www.offshorewind.co.uk/KnowledgeBase/
HistoricEnvironmentGuidanceNote.aspx

If you would like more information on any of the items included in this issue or wish to submit an item for future issues, please contact Chloe Delgery at: cowrie@offshorewind.co.uk