Bird and cetacean monitoring for GEROA

GEROA project (Green Energy Research for Offshore Atlantic) will be our next step in the development of SATH technology for floating offshore wind.

This 45MW precommercial floating wind farm is expected to be the first Offshore Wind Farm in Spain 10 kilometers off Bilbao Coast (BiMEP II test area in Armintza, Biscay). The installation is planned to be operational in 2025. This project will test and evaluate technical and environmental aspects in order to provide learning for future wind farm developments in Spain.

As part of the prior environmental characterization, bird and cetacean monitoring work has already begun in the proximities of GEROA installation location. These periodical campaigns will be part of the impact study and will make possible to verify that the selected area has low importance for marine birds and mammals.

Environmental Studies Icarus is managing this work as an expert team in the observation of birds and marine mammals. Hegaluze also participated with their boats specialized on the observation of marine fauna on the coast of Biscay.

On this first day of monitoring, our colleague Javier Del Real Tuñón has been accompanied by outstanding ornithologists such as Iñigo Zuberogoitia (Ícarus Environmental Studies), Jon Hidalgo (Lurgaia Foundation), Javier López Orruela (SEO Castro), and Ramón Martín (Talaia Landscape and environment).