TY - JOUR
TI - Environmental Assessment of Offshore Wind Power Generation near Rhode Island: Acoustic and Electromagnetic Effects on Marine Animals
AU - Miller, J
AU - Potty, G
AU - Raposa, K
AU - Casagrande, D
AU - Miller, L
AU - Crocker, S
AU - Tyce, R
AU - Preston, J
AU - Roderick, B
AU - Nystuen, J
AU - Scheifele, P
T2 - Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
AB - An offshore wind farm is planned for Rhode Island coastal waters. The developer has proposed to deploy wind turbines in two stages: 5 turbines in shallow waters 5 km south of Block Island and 100 turbines in deeper waters 30 km to the east. As part of the planning of the proposed offshore wind power generation project under the Rhode Island Special Area Management Plan, ambient acoustic and electromagnetic measurements were made in the area. Two passive acoustic listener (PAL) systems were deployed within 4 km of Block Island from October 6 to November 11, 2008. Data from the PALs were used to compute the ocean acoustic noise budget and other statistics by source. Transmission loss measurements were also made to support the noise budget calculation. Measurements of airborne noise from a 1.5-MW land-based wind turbine already in operation in Rhode Island were made. To support the electromagnetic effect study, an underwater magnetometer was towed at the two proposed sites and over an operational underwater 23-kV power cable. A preliminary assessment of the effects of the offshore wind farm on marine animals at these sites will be presented.
DA - 2009/10//
PY - 2009
VL - 126
IS - 4
SP - 2272
UR - http://scitation.aip.org/content/asa/journal/jasa/126/4/10.1121/1.3249301
DO - 10.1121/1.3249301
LA - English
KW - Wind Energy
KW - Fixed Offshore Wind
KW - EMF
KW - Noise
KW - Ecosystem Processes
KW - Fish
KW - Invertebrates
KW - Marine Mammals
ER -