The Massachusetts Research Partnership (MRP) members have attended their first meeting at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), where a two-day workshop on offshore wind energy resource characterization was held.
Representatives from the offshore wind industry, government agencies and universities came together to discuss the state-of-the-art in site characterization research and how to transition that science into practice for managing offshore wind in the U.S., with most of the discussion focused on establishing ecological baselines and protocols for post-construction monitoring.
Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Fellows Zana Cranmer and Blake Massey gave presentations as part of a panel on biological characteristics, sensing and solutions.
The MRP, which includes UMass Amherst, Tufts University, Northeastern University, UMass Lowell, UMass Dartmouth, and WHOI, was recently awarded USD 300,000 from the state of Massachusetts to draft a vision for the future of offshore wind energy.
The funding, under which the State of Massachusetts has allocated USD 700,000 to advance three studies relating to offshore wind development, followed the signing of a new energy legislation with regard to 1,600MW of offshore wind power in the state.