Wind Energy – UNM in Taiwan
BMS Offshore from the Netherlands has been awarded with the underwater noise monitoring (UNM), passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) and acoustic advisory services for Boskalis during the installation of offshore windfarm foundations off the west coast in Taiwan.
In Taiwan, the government has set stringent requirements to mitigate the impact of offshore construction works on the marine environment and protect endangered species residing in the area.
As part of these requirements, the regulators have set underwater noise thresholds with the need to monitor the construction noise in real time during pile driving, as well as perform passive acoustic monitoring during construction.
The engineers of BMS Offshore started the project in the January 2023 with the mobilization of the buoy deployment vessels and marine mammal observation (MMO) vessels.
Offshore construction works started off in February, whereby BMS Offshore with their team successfully deployed and retrieved the monitoring buoys.
During the installation works BMS engineers advised their client on the real-time underwater noise monitoring values to ensure compliance with local regulations.
Next to the underwater noise monitoring, BMS Offshore outfitted several MMO vessels with BMS Offshore PAM equipment for the PAM operators to use during the foundation installation works.
During construction the PAM setups on the MMO vessels are used to detect the presence of any marine mammals in the vicinity in real-time.
In the meantime, the first foundations were successfully installed whilst respecting the underwater noise threshold limits and ensuring protection of the marine environment during construction works.
