Scotland Set To Become Heart Of Offshore Wind Scientific Research – CleanTechnica

Published on June 21st, 2017 | by Joshua S Hill

June 21st, 2017 by Joshua S Hill

The northeast of Scotland is poised to become the global center for offshore wind scientific research, following the announcement this week from Swedish power company Vattenfall, which announced the successful projects that will take part in a3m research program at its European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre.

The European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) in Aberdeen Bay, Scotland, is a 92.4 megawatt (MW), 11 turbine offshore wind test and demonstration facility. The EOWDC was even constructed in a way which served as a demonstration, built with VestasV164-8.4MW turbines on top ofsuction bucket foundations, an industry first.

Though the EOWDC will play a big role in the offshore wind industry, it also briefly found itself headline news around the world, by virtue of a lawsuit that Donald Trump, now US President, took out against the developers for building an offshore wind farm where it could be seen from hisTrump International Golf Club. Thankfully for all, the case was thrown out by the UK Supreme Court back in December of 2015.

In November of last year, Vattenfall the owner of the EOWDC announced that it had shortlisted offshore wind projects for a 3 million scientific research program to investigate the environmental impacts of offshore wind, to be conducted at the EOWDC. This week, Vattenfall announced the winners of the process, part of what is believed to be the worlds largest-scale offshore wind research program, and one which will likely make Scotland a global center for such research in the future.

The announcement of these successful projects, including three in Scotland, is an exciting one with each having the potential to unlock fascinating new insights into the offshore wind environment and determine influencing environmental factors, saidAdam Ezzamel, EOWDC project director at Vattenfall. The 92.4MW EOWDC test and demonstration facility offers an unmissable opportunity to conduct this pioneering research and monitoring programme. We are pleased to be facilitating such innovative research in the North-east which will bring considerable benefits to the region as well as the industry and policy-making.

From almost a hundred applications across the UK and around the world, Vattenfall narrowed it down to a shortlist of 16, and then down to the successful final four. They are:

The panel were delighted with the response to programme call, and received many proposals supported by strong research teams involving some of the most prominent experts in their respective fields, saidProfessor Stuart Gibb, chair of the Scientific Panel Professor and Director of the Environmental Research Institute at the University of the Highlands and Islands.

We believe those projects that have been successful will effectively inform development of the EOWDC facility and deliver real, tangible data that increases our understanding of the relationship between offshore renewable energy developments and the environment. Such knowledge will be highly effective in informing future planning and consenting activities.

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Tags: Aberdeen Bay, Aberdeenshire, EOWDC, European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, Marine Scotland Science, Oxford Brookes University, River Dee Trust, Scotland, SMRU Consulting, University of St Andrews, Vattenfall

Joshua S Hill I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.