NorthWind research partner NINA is awarded funding for two new projects that will investigate the impacts on migratory birds and marine life of large-scale development of wind energy along the coast and offshore.
Making sure offshore wind is a sustainable industry means understanding how wind farms impact birds, fish and other wildlife in the ocean and along the coast. The Norwegian Institute of Nature Research (NINA) will look into this topic through two new research projects: VisAviS and WindSys.
Bird migration and wind energy development
One major potential cumulative conflict between coastal and offshore wind energy development and wildlife on the Norwegian coastline relates to the large number of migrating birds passing through the area twice a year.
Project VisAviS (2022-2026) will look into the challenges related to bird migration, through a collaborative approach involving stakeholders from the offshore wind industry, umbrella organisations and the energy and environmental authorities. The project will use state-of-the-art knowledge on bird migration to develop a visualisation tool for impact assessments.
Project lead will be Roel May, Senior Research Scientist at NINA (he is also involved in NorthWind).
Floating wind energy and marine life
The Institute of Marine Research and a consortium of other partners (among which NINA) obtained funding from the Research Council of Norway for a collaborative project to understand the impacts of floating wind farms on marine life, as well as co-existence with the fisheries industry.
Project WindSys (2022-2025) is a collaboration between key scientific, private and governmental actors and aims to investigate and document the impacts of placing floating wind turbines at sea.
– The project will produce state-of-the-art knowledge on ecosystem effects, and design robust and cost-effective monitoring methods, says NINA Senior Research Scientist, Roel May.
WindSys and VisAviS will complement research to be executed as part of NorthWind’s work package 5: Sustainable wind development.
