SeaGen: Additional Environmental Characterisation and Array Impact Extrapolation

The proposed project enables additional environmental studies to be conducted during 18 months of operation of SeaGen in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland.
SeaGen is a full commercial scale 1.2MW device which was installed in April 2008. By March 2012 SeaGen had delivered 4 GWh of electricity to the grid. These additional studies are not part of the environmental monitoring programme (EMP) required as part of the consenting process to install and operate SeaGen in Strangford Lough. The EMP was conducted between March 2008 and March 2011.
The additional studies are aimed at providing data to help the regulators assess the impacts of tidal arrays on the environment. The studies will focus on three areas:
• The QUB studies enhanced the data already gathered to predict the impacts of arrays upon benthic communities.
• The University of Exeter utilised existing bird data sets, and augmented these results with additional field surveys to assess the impacts of tidal arrays on birds.
• The Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) at the University of Southampton conducted subsea noise surveys on SeaGen to ; assess the impacts of this noise on the subsea environment, identify the noise sources on SeaGen and work with MCT To reduce the potential for noise generation. ISVR also produced a noise propagation model to extrapolate the potential noise from tidal array sites.