TY - RPRT
TI - Technology Gaps for Bird Monitoring in Relation to Offshore Wind Energy Development
AU - Courbis, S
AU - Etter, H
AU - Pacini, A
AU - Campoblanco, F
AU - Williams, K
AU - Stepanuk, J
AB - In recent years, the expansion and development of the offshore wind (OSW) industry has generated an interest in identifying the risk factors to wildlife associated with the construction, operation, and maintenance of fixed and floating OSW turbines. Wildlife monitoring for OSW energy development should be question-driven, scientifically robust, and integrated into OSW development and operation procedures; otherwise, funding spent on wildlife monitoring may not meaningfully inform future environmental assessments and adaptive management decisions. A variety of technologies are available for wildlife monitoring, but there is currently no comprehensive assessment of the capacity of available technologies to collect statistically robust wildlife data at OSW facilities, inform adaptive management, and reduce precautionary mitigation.As part of an effort to develop targeted recommendations for research and development (R&D) of bird and marine mammal monitoring technologies, subject matter experts (SMEs) were invited to two workshops in the autumn of 2022 to provide input on the technology types, limitations, and possible improvements to technologies that are used or have potential to be used to monitor marine birds in relation to OSW energy development. This report summarizes discussions from these workshops, including:The technologies and methods (including sample size and scale considerations) needed to answer priority research questions;Factors influencing the level of uncertainty in results produced by these technologies;Major bottlenecks and limitations of available methods/technologies that additional R&D could address; andIdeas to streamline bottlenecks.Workshop participants identified a broad range of technologies used to monitor birds and OSW development, as well as the limitations inherent in those technologies. Strategies to address these limitations included investments in further R&D to improve specific technologies. For example, SMEs suggested that R&D for tags and other bird-borne sensors focus on increasing sensor reliability and accuracy, further miniaturization of tags and improved battery life relative to tag size and increasing remote download capabilities. Tag integration was highlighted as a potential solution to some existing technological limitations, for example by improving integration of altimeters or pressure sensors with other tag types to obtain more reliable altitude data. More generally, SMEs noted the potential value of integrating a range of monitoring technologies that provide data of differing types or at complementary scales.SMEs indicated that engaging with wind energy projects and turbine manufacturers as soon as possible, preferably several years prior to construction, is important to streamline and facilitate the operationalization of turbine- or platform-based monitoring at OSW sites. SMEs also focused on the vii importance of standardization and flexibility in platforms and technologies, including designing systems to be able to operate on different countries’ electrical systems and a common need for front-end engineering for common scientific research needs on platforms. It was felt that the incorporation into turbine designs of built-in capacity designated for wildlife monitoring systems (including power, internet/data transfer, and physical space) would greatly facilitate the ability of offshore wind developers to meet environmental monitoring requirements, which are typically finalized much later in the development process. It was also suggested that the development of government requirements for data sharing protocols, standards, or platforms could help to drive collaboration and innovation. Ultimately, a combination of focused R&D, cross-sector coordination and streamlining, and acceleration of development and testing timelines were recommended to improve bird monitoring technologies.
DA - 2023/04//
PY - 2023
SP - 34
PB - Advisian (Worley Group)
UR - https://nationaloffshorewind.org/projects/technology-development-priorities-for-scientifically-robust-and-operationally-compatible-wildlife-monitoring-and-adaptive-management/
LA - English
KW - Wind Energy
KW - Fixed Offshore Wind
KW - Birds
ER -