The Nature Conservancy Turbine Reefs Project

As offshore wind installations continue to grow, there is the potential to augment benthic habitat conditions near turbine foundations with scour or cable protection structures designed to mimic natural habitat features, often termed Nature Based Design (NBD). In some cases, NBD will be considered mitigation of altered natural habitats; in other cases it might be used in place of traditional scour protection layers. To encourage the development of this segment of the supply chain, INSPIRE provided a framework to guide the design and construction of these structures. After a thorough desktop study, INSPIRE Environmental co-authored a report with The Nature Conservancy that includes a catalogue of available structures and/or design considerations for selected species and their habitats found along the U.S. east coast from Cape Cod to South Carolina.

The November 2021 Technical Report is titled: Turbine Reefs: Nature-Based Designs for Augmenting Offshore Wind Structures in the United States