Using data and evidence to support 25 years of UK offshore wind

In December, The Crown Estate celebrated 25 years of UK offshore wind. In doing so, we continue to demonstrate the importance of collecting and sharing data and evidence to make informed decisions in our marine environment.

The £50m Offshore Wind Evidence and Change (OWEC) programme, led by The Crown Estate in partnership with 26 government organisations, industry bodies, and environmental NGOs, helps fill critical knowledge gaps and provide robust data to support the sustainable growth of offshore wind whilst protecting marine ecosystems. Since its launch in 2020, OWEC has funded 42 projects across the country.

Two of these projects - Planning Offshore Wind Strategic Environmental Impact Decisions (POSEIDON) and Fisheries Sensitivity Mapping and Displacement Modelling (FiSMaDiM) - focus on supporting two different aspects of the marine environment: marine wildlife and the fishing industry.

POSEIDON, led by Natural England in partnership with Cefas, Bangor University and the Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling, looks at how offshore wind impacts marine birds, mammals and seafloor habitats.

By understanding where species including gannets, kittiwakes and seals live and how they move throughout the year, this project will help offshore wind farms avoid critical habitats and migration routes.

It also involves building mapping tools and spatial models to identify the areas of the sea that different species live in or migrate through. These are used to understand areas where offshore wind farms might have a greater impact on those species and identify the areas where future projects could face increased costs due to the need to compensate for their environmental impacts.

A similar principle is applied to FiSMaDIM, providing a clearer picture of how offshore wind farms affect fishing activities in UK waters. Commercial fishing has significant economic and cultural impacts in coastal communities across the UK making it important that offshore wind development works together with fisheries to reduce disruption.

The project was led by Cefas, in collaboration with the University of St Andrews and Marine Scotland Science. It built a web-based tool which maps areas of high importance for the fishing industry within the UK Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and assesses economic impacts on fisheries to inform better planning and reduce conflicts.

Evidence from FiSMaDiM gives policy makers and regulators access to objective data to aid the growth of offshore wind whilst avoiding areas which are critical to fisheries and reducing the risk of economic impacts.

For both POSEIDON and FiSMaDiM, the OWEC programme is working with stakeholders to maximise the benefits from these projects and ensure they lead to clear guidance on where offshore wind farm development will result in the lowest impact on nature and other users of the sea, while still meeting the UK’s clean energy targets. All outputs are accessible via the evidence base held on the Marine Data Exchange. This is open to all to promote collaboration and to facilitate evidence-based decision making across the offshore wind industry.