Abstract
In 2010 the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) received research funding from the Scottish Government to investigate the acoustic output from wave energy devices operating in a high energy wave climate. This research will facilitate future studies into the effects of the acoustic output of wave energy converter devices on cetaceans, sea mammals and seabirds.
The project involved assessment of available techniques and development of a methodology appropriate to EMEC’s Billia Croo wave test site to enable acoustic data collection and analysis, and subsequent use of the methodology to collect data from which an acoustic baseline description of the test site can be formed. The production of this acoustic characterisation of the Billia Croo test site will permit future comparison with data collected by developers testing devices at the EMEC wave test site using the same methodology and equipment.
This document forms the final report to the Scottish Government and comprises four main sections as detailed below, together with an Annex which describes how the methodology was used to measure the acoustic output from an operational wave energy converter device deployed at the Billia Croo test site. Section 1 provides a review of relevant background data, while Sections 2-4 provide details of the measurement methodology developed during the study to characterise noise for operational noise assessment of wave energy converter systems.