A robot diver inspected 41 underwater structures at Scotland’s Hywind wind farm and found 121 kinds of marine life

As Scotland’s offshore floating wind capacity rises, the structures interact with surrounding marine wildlife.

With stricter climate mandates and rising electricity consumption, renewable energy generation must expand rapidly.

Coastal spatial conflicts have significantly slowed this transition, but deep-sea deployment offers a strategic solution.

Ultimately, the survey will help developers implement guided eco-friendly designs into proposed floating wind projects, de-risking environmental permitting.

Now, it is vital to understand the potential long-term impacts of floating installations on deep marine ecosystems.

Will increased knowledge help developers balance green generation with deep-sea conservation?

How land-based green energy capacity growth reached a ceiling

Scotland is facing surging electricity demand and ambitious climate mandates at the same time.

Accelerating the deployment of renewable energy, especially wind, is critical to meeting both.

National targets require deploying 20 GW of wind by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2045.

Furthermore, widespread electrification of transport and heating, alongside rapidly expanding digital infrastructure, continuously increases power demand.

Large-scale wind generation offers high-capacity clean electricity that meets the growing national energy demand more sustainably.

Yet land-based renewable energy growth faces immense terrestrial bottlenecks.

More than 9.2 GW of proposed onshore projects remain trapped in planning backlogs.

Some development times have increased to 3.5 years instead of the standard two-year target.

Additionally, these projects face severe grid connection waiting times, complex administrative hurdles, and community opposition.

These planning delays can risk leaving Scotland 6.7 GW short of its 2030 onshore wind targets.

Project developers turned to offshore generation as a result, but similar spatial challenges soon became evident.

Unlocking Scotland’s true wind potential

Developers in Scotland faced significant spatial and engineering barriers with standard fixed-bottom offshore turbines.

These fixed foundations are directly installed onto the ocean floor by driving massive monopiles into the seabed.

However, this method limits installation to shallow depths under 197 feet.

In Scotland, nearshore shallow zones are already congested.

Consequently, competition with shipping corridors, commercial fishing, and coastal conservation zones is intense.

This restricts the number of viable nearshore development sites.

Fortunately, deep-sea floating turbines bypass these constraints and enable tapping into stronger, more consistent winds.

These buoyant platforms are tethered to the seafloor in deep waters using suction anchors and dynamic mooring cables.

Unfortunately, introducing large artificial structures into previously undisturbed deep-sea ecosystems raised immediate ecological impact concerns.

However, these deep-water installations were completely novel and lacked empirical data on how artificial habitats interact with local ecosystems.

 

To resolve these critical concerns, researchers conducted an extensive subsea survey, published in Wind Energy Science (Copernicus).

Revealing subsea reef dynamics with remotely operated vehicles

The Hywind Scotland Pilot Park, located 15.5 miles off Peterhead, Scotland, served as the research site.

The study was conducted by a team from MMT Sweden AB and Equinor.

After being commissioned in 2017, Hywind became the world’s first commercial floating wind farm.

Its turbines operate at depths between 328 and 426 feet and feature five 6 MW spar-buoy turbines.

The goal of the research was to:

• Map structural zonation
• Quantify marine biodiversity
• Evaluate biofouling colonization
• Check for non-indigenous species

 

Using a robot diver to safely execute the underwater survey

A work-class remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was deployed from the survey vessel M/V Stril Explorer.

The ROV has high-definition video cameras and dual lasers, and inspected 41 subsea structures.

Thriving marine ecosystems were discovered across the submerged structures.

The ROV recorded 121 distinct taxa across 11 animal and plant phyla.

Kelp and blue mussels dominated shallow sections down to 66 feet.

Plumose anemones and tube-building fan worms covered the deeper sections up to 262 feet.

There were no non-indigenous species, but mussel shedding altered the sandy seabed.

Localized artificial reefs were formed, attracting crab species and mobile fish.

The survey findings demonstrated that deep-water floating turbines can coexist with and even boost subsea marine life.

Ultimately, the survey will help developers implement guided eco-friendly designs into proposed floating wind projects, de-risking environmental permitting.