Installation of an innovative marine data collection buoy on one of the floating wind ‘macro-zones’ set to be tendered in the Mediterranean Sea off France is moving ahead following the award of final permits to technology developer Ocergy, according to Brodosplit's release.
The pilot unit, part of Ocergy’s ‘Blue Oracle’ (Buoy with Lidar and Underwater Equipment for Ocean Resource Assessment and Characterisation of Life in the Environment) project, received the French Prefect Maritime anointment to be deployed for marine planning off the Occitanie region where several of the country’s first floating wind arrays will be built.
The buoy will also define new standards for the characterisation of aerial and underwater biodiversity: from the zero state to the monitoring of environmental impact over the entire life of a project.
Ocergy, which launched last year with the unveiled of an innovative semisubmersible floating wind design, is leading the project for strategic partners including developer Skyborn Renewables.
Most of the Blue Oracle project’s major suppliers, including Brodosplit for the buoy fabrication, Euroports, for the buoy assembly and the shore base in Port-la-Nouvelle, and Vryhof for the anchor and mooring, have be chosen. The unit will be fitted with Vaisala windcube lidar.
Among the other company involved in the project are: Tachysséma Développement, which is delivering the power management system, Scada, and onboard instrumentation; University of Perpignan CREM – UPVD, which is overseeing the bio-diversity marine studies, and Sense of life, which will handle seabird tracking and analyses.