TY - RPRT
TI - Benthic Monitoring During Wind Turbine Installation and Operation at the Block Island Wind Farm, Rhode Island – Year 2
AU - Bartley, M
AU - English, P
AU - King, J
AU - Khan, A
AB - This report presents key observations, data, findings, and results from the second year of benthic monitoring conducted in and around the Block Island Wind Farm (BIWF) Project Area (Figure 1). Year 1 monitoring was initiated soon after the wind farm became operational in December 2016. Year 2 monitoring was conducted over two consecutive days (November 30 and December 1) in late 2017. Key observations, data, findings, and results from Year 1 monitoring were previously presented in a separate report (HDR 2017); and they are summarized in this Year 2 report to provide a comparative benchmark for the 2017 monitoring results.The BIWF is a commercial offshore wind farm in the United States, and it is located 4.5 kilometers from Block Island, Rhode Island, in the Atlantic Ocean. The five-turbine, 30-megawatt facility is owned and operated by Deepwater Wind Block Island, LLC. Power from the turbines is transmitted to the electric grid via a 34-kilometer transmission submarine power cable buried under the ocean floor, making landfall north of Scarborough Beach in Narragansett. The facility primarily supplies power to Block Island, with excess power being transmitted to mainland Rhode Island.BIWF construction began in July 2015 and was completed in a phased manner by the end of November 2016. During Phase I, five steel jacket foundations were installed from July 26 to October 26, 2015. Phase II was initiated in January 2016 and it included installation of the turbines on the foundations and laying of the submarine power transmission cables. Operational testing of the facility was conducted from August through November 2016 and the initial operations commenced on December 2, 2016. Benthic data were collected over two sampling periods, referred to as “Year 1” and “Year 2.” Year 1 data were collected between December 2016 and August 2017. Year 2 data were collected between November 2017 and June 2018. Data collected in both years include grab samples, seabed video, and still imagery.Each of the five turbines at the Block Island Wind Farm consists of a 6-megawatt GE Haliade 150 threebladed turbine with a rotor diameter of 150 meters (m) and mounted to a piled steel jacket foundation. The hub height is 100 m and the overall turbine height is 150 m. The total weight for each turbine, including jackets, decks and piles, is 1,500 tons. It is noted that only 5 percent of offshore wind foundations installed in Europe are jacket structures. Consequently, monitoring data for these foundation types and impacts on benthic ecology are minimal. Therefore, this study contributes to filling knowledge gaps about the effects of offshore renewables and, in particular, the specific construction and operational effects of jacket structures on seabed sediment communities.The monitoring reported in this document was conducted under the United States (U.S.) Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Real-Time Opportunity for Development Environmental Observations (RODEO) Program. The purpose of this program is to make direct, real-time measurements of the nature, intensity, and duration of potential stressors during the construction and/or initial operations of selected proposed offshore wind facilities. The purpose also includes recording direct observations during the testing of different types of equipment that may be used during future offshore development to measure or monitor activities and their impact-producing factors.Data collected under the RODEO Program may be used as input to analyses or models that are used to evaluate effects or impacts from future offshore activities. This program is not intended to duplicate or substitute for any monitoring that may otherwise be required to be conducted by the developers of the proposed projects. Also, RODEO Program monitoring is coordinated with the industry and is not intended to interfere with or result in delay of industry activities.The BIWF is the first facility to be monitored under the RODEO Program. Table 1 identifies the types of field data collected under the RODEO Program during construction and/or initial operations of this facility.
DA - 2019/03//
PY - 2019
PB - HDR Engineering Inc
SN - BOEM 2019-019
UR - https://www.boem.gov/environment/benthic-monitoring-during-wind-turbine-installation-and-operation-block-island-wind-0
LA - English
KW - Wind Energy
KW - Fixed Offshore Wind
KW - Habitat Change
KW - Physical Environment
ER -