Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence (FOW CoE) has begun work on a collaborative marine research project aimed at identifying design innovations and best practice in monitoring and mitigating underwater noise associated with floating offshore wind developments, a consideration in the EIA process.
Project partners include Equinor, JASCO Applied Sciences, Scottish Association for Marine Science and Xi Engineering, with ORE Catapult serving as project lead. The project has been jointly funded by The Crown Estate and the FOW CoE.
The FLOWN-MIT program aims to promote an evidence-based approach to monitoring and mitigating potential risks. Its work is expected to be completed in 2026.
“This important project will build on our existing body of knowledge, as well as other key industry studies, to deliver this novel research,” says ORE Catapult’s Andrew Stormonth-Darling.
“The team will harness live operational data from commercial floating offshore wind farms to model an accurate acoustic profile of noise emissions from floating offshore wind turbines. This research will involve a thorough environmental risk review, and identify appropriate noise monitoring and mitigating tools and techniques designed to facilitate a consistently well-informed, efficient, evidence-based consenting process.”
