MEASUREMENT OF THE UNDERWATER NOISE FROM OPERATIONAL WINDFARMS, AND ASSESSMENT OF THE POTENTIAL FOR EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT

摘要

Offshore windfarms are being constructed all over the world as a result of the drive towards renewable energy. In 2008, The United Kingdom surpassed Denmark to become the world's largest generator of offshore wind energy, and has been estimated to have over a third of Europe's total offshore wind resource (Oswald et al 2008). British electricity suppliers are required by law to provide proportion of their supply from renewable sources. The UK's sector lead is likely to continue for some time, with currently about 6GW of installed capacity and about 28 GW anticipated by 2020. A windfarm typically comprises a few tens to several hundreds of individual turbine installations, each of which is mounted on a piled foundation. It is intuitively obvious that as a consequence of the rotating machinery associated with these structures a turbine installation may create underwater noise. It is well known that underwater noise has the capacity to create an adverse environmental effect, and hence in quantifying the benefit of wind energy to the environment, any adverse effect of noise must be considered. FEPA Licences in the UK normally require assessment of the emitted underwater noise, in which measurements of underwater noise are taken and interpreted in a biologically significant way.