Scotland’s waters, where oil has been exploited for decades, is now a point of interest for the location of vast wind farms. The move away from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is vital not only for our future and prosperity but for that of our planet.

New research, published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science,  outlines how we can better understand the environmental impacts of offshore wind farms on marine ecosystems. This includes using fish migration patterns to estimate the future location of seabirds and mammals – and avoid potential risks of conflict with the wind farms.

Dr. Natalie Isaksson from the University of the Highlands and Islands said:

“Tackling climate change is the most important challenge of our time. However, in building the infrastructure to address it in the form of offshore wind farms, we must also conserve our vital ecosystems. This research provides a strategy for developers and researchers to follow to ensure this happens.”

The research forms part of the PREDICT programme, which combines academic analysis with industry innovation to investigate the impact of climate change on sea life using novel, minimal impact and low-carbon techniques.

PREDICT is an ambitious three-year £800k project funded by Ørsted, the global leader in offshore wind, and a collaboration between the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) at the University of the Highlands and Islands and the University of Aberdeen that aims to address knowledge gaps in offshore wind environmental characterisation by improving understanding of fish migration patterns and providing a vision for next-generation monitoring techniques. PREDICT

The research lays out how we can, more rapidly and with low-carbon approaches, understand the impacts of offshore wind energy on coastal seas and the knock-on effects on fish, marine birds and mammals and the interactions with climate change.

Professor Beth Scott from the University of Aberdeen said:

“Having spent my life attempting to understand how marine ecosystems function, I’m excited to be a part of the process to find ways that our seas can play a vital and role in combatting the threat of climate change.

“Strategic research is a critical part of the jigsaw to ensure that large-scale offshore renewable energy can co-exist within an ecologically sustainable approach.”

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David Bould, Head of the UK and IE Innovation Hub at Ørsted, said:

”Scaling up renewable energy is a key part of the solution in protecting our planet.  Ørsted is leading the charge on innovative ways to generate green energy and combat climate change whilst protecting nature.”

The Paper  A paradigm for understanding whole ecosystem effects of offshore wind farms in shelf seas  published in ICES Journal of Marine Science contains research which is the first of its kind.

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