Testing the suitability of Manx waters for a windfarm

Ørsted monitoring wave measurements and subsea temperatures

The company hoping to develop the Isle of Man's first off-shore windfarm, Ørsted, has taken another step in its surveying of Manx waters with the deployment of a new monitoring device.

A buoy has been placed in the area the Danish renewable energy firm has been granted for lease.

It will monitor wave measurements and subsea temperatures around the site, roughly 6-12 nautical miles off the east coast, to test its suitability for an offshore windfarm.

The Isle of Man Government leased the area to Ørsted in 2015 - the company recently established an office in Douglas to focus on this project.

It's not known if the firm has a timeline for when it hopes to have the farm up and running.

The buoy itself was installed by contactors, Fugro, and it's said it will gather data for the first time on water temperature to the east of the Isle of Man.

It's hoped this can, in turn, be used by stakeholders across the Island to 'track trends and monitor the growing impact on the marine environment from global climate change.'

John Galloway, Ørsted's Development Director, says: “The deployment of this device off the east coast of the Isle of Man is just part of the wide range of surveys that we have been carrying out over the years as we design this project."

 “We’re extremely proud that we’ve been able to repurpose and reuse a wave measurement buoy from one of our existing Irish Sea projects - yet another signal of Ørsted’s commitment to sustainability and driving down the cost of offshore wind.”

It's also important to note - this is unrelated to the Morgan and Mona sites currently being consulted on.