Project overview:

Right Wind: Resolving Protected Species Space-Use Conflicts in Wind Energy Areas

Awardee:

Cornell University

Start Date:

Q1, 2018

Technical Challenge Area:

Environment and Conflicting Use

Completion Date:

N/A (Currently Underway)

Synopsis:

Cornell University, in partnership with the New England Aquarium and Lautec US, aims to provide an innovative decision support tool to offshore wind developers that allows them to reduce financial risks and better mitigate spatial use conflicts.

Target Outcomes:

Model right whale spatial and temporal distributions in the MA/RI wind energy areas and explicitly estimate the associated uncertainty.

Results shall be used in an economic trade-off analysis that shall form the basis for a prototype decision support framework. The framework can be used by developers and stakeholders to find solutions for balancing species conservation with wind energy development.

These results will also be commercialized in the form of an interactive web App that is user friendly and can be used by anyone.