University of Rhode Island scientists spent more than two years developing scientific standards to measure the effects of a wind farm off the state’s coast. Now the federal government wants to borrow that knowledge for its national standards.
A team of federal agencies announced in October a $745,000 grant for URI scientists to help develop the procedures that should be followed for any offshore renewable energy projects to be sited in federal waters. Such projects – including but not limited to wind farms – could some day dot the nation’s federally controlled ocean waters.
If incorporated into federal regulations, the reach of those protocols could touch on projects as far away as California, along with the wind farm proposed by Deepwater Wind in federal waters off the Rhode Island shore.
“We’re creating tools, and we recognize that these tools need to be flexible in order to be applied effectively in other places in the world and the country,” said Jennifer McCann, a URI researcher who will lead the project.
The grant comes as the university finishes work on a study of Rhode Island’s coastal waters. Known as the ocean Special Area Management Plan, or SAMP, researchers delivered it last month to the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council. The council approved it on Oct. 19, with the caveat that some tweaking remains.
URI and CRMC officials hailed the document as the first of its kind and one that garnered national attention in scientific circles. It also, they said, proved key in obtaining the latest grant.
“We’re being recognized nationally that we do an excellent job,” McCann said.
The grant comes from three agencies: the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“This effort has placed Rhode Island at the forefront of comprehensive coastal and marine spatial planning,” Brown said. “The critical experience gained from developing this plan was central in their selection as part of the National Ocean Policy Partnership competition, as they will use that experience to develop a flexible, consistent and reliable methodology for conducting environmental-impact evaluations for offshore renewable energy projects around the nation.”
Like the SAMP, the work for the federal government will involve URI researchers alongside experts from around the world. URI scientists will lead teams studying fisheries, birds, sea turtles, mammals, ecology and cultural resources. Researchers at higher education institutions in Europe, where wind turbines already spin off the shores, will work with local scientists.
All told, McCann expects more than 40 people to participate in the project. She also wants to hold discussions among stakeholders, similar to how the state incorporated public sessions into its SAMP development process. The new project is expected to wrap up in September 2012.
South Kingstown-based Applied Science Associates will also lend a hand, as will staff from the CRMC, including Executive Director Grover Fugate, who spearheaded the SAMP. And Providence-based Deepwater Wind has pledged in-kind support for the project.
The company, which is pursuing an eight-turbine farm off Block Island as well as a larger one envisioned in federal waters, has worked closely with URI in the past on scientific data collection. Deepwater is also supporting efforts by URI to persuade the U.S. Department of Energy to create a center of excellence for wind energy at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography.
The university sees the award as a piece of a larger puzzle to position its Graduate School of Oceanography as a leader in offshore wind-energy research, said Dennis Nixon, the school’s associate dean.
“By helping set the standards, I can envision the URI team almost being like a SWAT team being called in to other parts of the country to help,” Nixon said.
That could prove not only prestigious for the school, but also helpful for the bottom line. Last fiscal year, grants comprised about 82 percent of its $39.5 million budget, Nixon said. Money from the federal government helps the school maintain its operations and attract internationally renowned researchers.
For the study itself, the impact will surely reach beyond Rhode Island’s borders. When complete, URI will ship the standards to the three federal agencies. There, the report will become one of eight research projects commissioned to develop a framework for building renewable energy systems in federal waters.
“There are many new and exciting renewable energy opportunities waiting for us in the ocean,” NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said in a statement.
Other projects will explore how to pick locations for wind farms based on a wide variety of concerns, including the impact of noise from projects in federal waters and the visual impact of renewable energy projects. •
