Offshore operations at the SEM-REV site continue for the Velella project. Velella aims to qualify several technological bricks & methods necessary to prepare the deployment of commercial floating wind projects in the best economic, social & environmental conditions.
A look back at last spring’s pelagic community monitoring campaign
The Velella project studies the impact of floating wind turbines on the marine environment, and in particular on pelagic communities – organisms that do not live on the seabed, but swim and float in the open sea (zooplankton, micronekton and small pelagic fish). The physical presence of the float, noise emissions and the physical and chemical quality of the surrounding water are all pressures that can influence the marine environment.
This spring, a campaign to monitor pelagic communities was carried out at the SEM-REV test site around BW Ideol’s Floatgen wind turbine, with the support of the French Oceanographic Fleet.
For Ifremer and the OPEN-C Foundation, this was the first campaign to test innovative methods: echo sounders, videos and sampling of the marine environment (living organisms, eDNA, etc.). The aim is to repeat this type of measurement twice a year for the duration of the project. Following the success of the first campaign, the second is already underway!
These new methods will provide complementary results to the sensors that will be installed in a fixed position on the Floatgen wind turbine’s float. See you soon for the first results.
Velella project is led by BW Ideol ; Centrale Nantes ; Fondation OPEN-C ; Ifremer (photo credit) ; ENSTA Bretagne ; IVM Technologies SAS and financed by the state in the framework of “France 2030” operated by ADEME.
Retrouvez la présentation du projet sur notre page “Projets collaboratifs”
