The United States Department of Energy has awarded Duke University a $7.5 million grant to research the impact that offshore wind development can have on wildlife and marine life. In a November 12, 2021 article by the North Carolina Coastal Federation at CoastalReview.org, it was announced that the grant is part of a larger sustainable energy development award package of $13.5 million by the Energy Department.
The Department of Energy distributed the funds among four different projects, all focused on wildlife and offshore wind. In his first months in office, President Joe Biden announced his goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by the year 2030; meeting this goal would put the United States on a path to achieve 110 gigawatts by 2050.
To put these plans in motion, more offshore wind construction off the Atlantic coast will be beginning in the next several years. However, as reported by the North Carolina Coastal Federation at CoastalReview.org “there is uncertainty as to how offshore wind may affect fish, whales, birds and other marine life.” In response, Duke University’s project, Wildlife and Offshore Wind aims to answer some of these questions.
“There’s a fair few number of moving parts, and we’re going to try to figure out how to get those moving parts to move in harmony,” said Dr. Douglas Nowacek, a Repass-Rodgers University Distinguished Professor of Conservation Technology at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, NC. According to the North Carolina Coastal Federation, Nowacek will be leading the project with other researchers at Duke University, although a consortium of researchers involved in the project will span 15 different institutions including Rutgers University, the University of St. Andrews, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Syracuse University, the Pacific Northwest National Lab, TetraTech, Scientific Innovations, the New England Aquarium, Florida State University, the Biodiversity Research Institute, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Southall Environmental Associates, and Cornell University.
Nowacek stated at CoastalReview.org that the first step will be to aggregate into one place all the data that already exists, including information from academic researchers, government agencies, as well as some of Europe’s experience with offshore wind. They also have letters of commitment from several wind energy developers, stating that they will share wildlife data with Duke University’s Wildlife and Offshore Wind project. “The next step then is going to be to create some tools, some models, (and) some frameworks to utilize those data,” Nowacek said.
The article noted that different wildlife may be affected at different stages of the offshore wind development process, citing marine mammals, like the endangered North Atlantic right whale, as being perhaps the most impacted during the noisy construction stage. It was also stated that avian interactions or displacement could also occur after the turbines are built, so the project could set the stage for long-term, conscientious management of sustainable energy with regard to marine species.
