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Social Acceptance of a Reduced-Footprint Synthetic Mooring System for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines in the Gulf of Maine
Summary
This study examines public attitudes toward synthetic mooring systems designed to reduce environmental impact compared to traditional mooring methods. Researchers assessed community and stakeholder acceptance of these lower-footprint alternatives in marine settings. Findings provide insight into the social factors that influence adoption of more sustainable mooring technologies.
Engineers are looking to reduce the size of floating offshore wind mooring footprints to minimize conflict with other ocean users. To this end, the University of Maine (UMaine) received funding from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to design, demonstrate, and validate a novel reduced-footprint synthetic mooring system for floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) that reduces impacts to fisheries and the levelized cost of energy. UMaine designed two mooring systems for the New England Aqua Ventus (NEAV) I demonstration project to quantify the technical, economic, and social impacts of a reduced-footprint hybrid mooring system. Specifically, a traditional catenary chain mooring system and a novel polyester rope-chain hybrid system were designed to the front-end engineering design level for this assessment. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was funded by DOE to help independently quantify the social and techno-economic impacts of the rope-chain hybrid mooring system designed by UMaine. This report focuses on NREL's assessment of the social acceptance of the reduced-footprint rope-chain hybrid mooring system and the conventional all-chain mooring system by competing users in the Gulf of Maine.