Development of an Adaptable Monitoring Package for Marine Renewable Energy Projects Part I: Conceptual Design and Operation

Environmental monitoring of marine renewable energy projects is needed to reduce environmental uncertainties and enable sustainable commercial implementations. An Adaptable Monitoring Package (AMP), along with the support infrastructure required to perform maintenance of the AMP, is being developed to enable real-time environmental monitoring of marine renewable energy converters. The monitoring capabilities supported by the AMP include marine animal interactions with converters, noise levels, current and wave fields, and water quality. The core instrumentation on the AMP is comprised of a hybrid stereo-optical and acoustical camera system, a localizing hydrophone array, acoustic Doppler current profilers and velocimeters, a water quality sensor, cetacean click detector, and fish tag receiver. For an initial deployment to monitor a tidal turbine in deep water, the AMP is integrated into the converter structure and connected to shore via the turbine export cable, but can be disconnected and recovered for maintenance independently of the turbine. The AMP is deployed by a SeaEye Falcon inspectionclass ROV and a custom tool skid. This paper describes the function, design, and dynamic stability of the AMP and deployment ROV. The conceptual design and approach to operations, to be confirmed through field testing, suggests that the AMP is likely ∗Corresponding Author: [email protected] to meet the need for high-bandwidth monitoring of marine renewable energy converters at an acceptable cost.