November 7, 2023 — Efforts to get the US offshore wind industry off the ground have been slow and stumbling, partly on account of opposition from stakeholders in the fishing industry. That’s the bad news. On a brighter note, wind developers elsewhere are beginning to attract aquaculture stakeholders with opportunities for multi-use and co-located operations. If the trend takes hold, that could help deflect some of those fish-related slings and arrows.
Offshore Wind: It’s Not Just About The Fish
Fishing industry stakeholders are not the only ones with an interest in thwarting renewable energy development along the eastern US seaboard. Oil industry-affiliated organizations and their allies in government have also been in the mix.
According to a Reuters report in 2021, for example, a nonprofit organization called the Texas Public Policy Institute has provided pro bono support to a lawsuit brought by fishing businesses in three states seeking to block approval of the Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts.
These Offshore Wind Turbines Are Engineered For Fish Farming
Elsewhere around the world, offshore wind stakeholders are already making the case for fish-friendly wind farms. Last week, the Chinese company Shanghai Electric emailed CleanTechnica with an update on a first-of-its-kind, deep sea offshore wind project in China’s National Marine Ranching Demonstration Zone.
The project consists of three floating wind turbines and solar panels, too. Each floating platform includes a hexagonal interior space reserved for fish farming. The fish ponds were previously tested on a 1:40 scale model as part of a series of almost 200 operational tests for the project as a whole.
“The pioneering convergence of wind power, photovoltaics, and aquaculture presents a new horizon for the industry to develop sustainable and green renewable solutions designed to reduce carbon emissions while boosting economic growth,” Shanghai Electric enthused.
Last spring, another Chinese firm also let word slip about its interest in designing offshore wind turbines for aquaculture. In a post on LinkedIn, the company Mingyang Smart Energy announced that it has designed a jacket-type wind turbine foundation with an integrated fish cage.
In contrast to simple pile-type foundations, jacket foundations are complex structures designed for use in deeper waters.
“This typhoon-resistant structure includes an intelligent aquaculture system with remote functions, such as automated feeding, monitoring, detection, and collection,” the company stated.
MingYang estimates that its system can accommodate up to 150,000 fish in a body of water measuring 5,000 cubic meters. The new turbine is slated to be installed at the company’s 505-megawatt Mingyang Qingzhou 4 wind farm in the South China Sea, which is scheduled for commissioning in 2026.