Grants / Department of the Interior / Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

M22AS00287: AT-22-07: Exploring the Connectivity Among Offshore Wind Turbines

Closed Closed July 18, 2022 Opportunity M22AS00287 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. Who won this program's grants before is below, and similar open grants are at the end of the page. It is in our archive of Bureau of Ocean Energy Management notices from 2022.

• Award ceiling$800,000
• Award floor$400,000
• Total funding$800,000
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeCooperative Agreement

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to colleges and universities.

• Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

Eligible institutions are limited to state academic institutions adjacent to current project areas along the U.S. Atlantic coast from Maine to North Carolina.

More grants for colleges and universities.

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Environmental Studies (ES) awards averaged $612,245; this notice allows up to $800,000 per award.
• Most of the program's money (83% over five years) went to colleges and universities.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

Offshore wind turbines along the U.S. Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) introduce hard substrate into an environment that is usually composed of soft sediment. These structures also provide vertical habitat through the entire water column. As has been observed for all artificial structures introduced in the marine environment, marine growth is rapid, and a complex habitat is formed. Specifically for wind facilities, researchers in Belgium have observed a rapid succession of marine life over a ten-year period (Kerckhof et al. 2019). Besides the reef effect from encrusting organisms, fish species are often attracted to these structures. One concern raised is whether the proximity of structures is additive and, as such, results in a restructuring of the ecosystem at larger scales than just the immediate vicinity of the turbine. In other words, is there connectivity between the turbines for mobile species such as fish? Although the Gulf of Mexico has thousands of oil and gas structures, and in some locations, there are clusters or large groupings of structures, changes to the environment have focused on alterations at individual structures. In the Pacific, oil and gas structures are studied in relation to nearby natural reefs for comparisons. Unlike solitary oil and gas wells or artificial reefs created with a single vessel, offshore wind facilities are composed of large groups of structures (100s of structures) within close proximity. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is an additive effect on fish from multiple structures in an offshore wind facility. Is there connectivity for some species between turbines and does this result in a larger impact to ecosystems than if impacts are localized to an individual turbine? Answering this question will improve our understanding regarding the ecosystem interactions with offshore wind facilities on fish resources.

Category: Environment.

Applying now

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