Environmental assessment of offshore wind power generation near Rhode Island: Acoustic and electromagnetic effects on marine animals

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2009-10, Vol.126 (4_Supplement), p.2272-2272
• Main Authors: Miller, James H., Potty, Gopu R., Vigness Raposa, Kathleen, Casagrande, David, Miller, Lisa, Crocker, Steven E., Tyce, Robert, Preston, Jonathan, Roderick, Brian, Nystuen, Jeffrey A., Scheifele, Peter M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.3249301

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. [Funding provided by the RI Office of Energy Resources.]