A buoy has been launched to study biocolonisation on the site of a future North Atlantic wind farm.
Designed by Cerema and France Energies Marines, under the scientific supervision of the University of Western Brittany, the 2t buoy is sited on the planned Groix & Belle-Île pilot wind farm.
The buoy’s mooring consists of two lines. The first is dedicated to onsite mooring at a depth of 65m. The second, suspended in parallel, is equipped with frames with collectors that can be oriented in the current, fixed every 10 m to study biocolonisation according to depth.
Special design
A system of spacers prevents the two lines from becoming entangled. The frames and the main mooring line are equipped with Mastodon pressure and temperature sensors, developed in collaboration with LOPS (CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, UBO).
The aim of the installation is to enable studies on the biocolonisation process of mobile elements immersed throughout the water column, such as mooring chains, electric cable sheaths or flat metal surfaces.
These will be carried out as part of two collaborative R&D projects, the 48-month APPEAL and the 40-month ABIOP+, coordinated by France Energies Marines and led respectively by the University of Western Brittany and the University of Nantes.
The projects aim to answer to what extent could the development of biofouling modify the functionality of the components of a floating wind turbine? and on the scale of an offshore farm, could this biocolonisation have positive or negative effects on the marine ecosystem?
By Rebecca Jeffrey
