BLOWN: Biomimicry to Lessen Offshore Wind impact on the Natural environment

Project Description

Due to exponential growth, offshore wind farm developments have moved into deep stratified waters, which are governed by fundamentally different processes to shallow coastal waters, and are disproportionately biologically rich. Yet the impact of large-scale expansion on shelf seas is poorly understood and could profoundly alter marine ecosystems by introducing artificial (turbulent) mixing. This Fellowship will carry out the first fundamental study of the interaction between offshore wind infrastructure and stratified waters using a combined state-of-the-art numerical and experimental approach. Learning from nature, bioinspired solutions that reduce mixing will be tested across a suite of conditions.