Nova Innovation installs novel environmental monitoring kit in Canada

Nova Innovation has deployed a remote observation platform (ROP) in Petit Passage in Nova Scotia as part of its tidal energy array project.

The ROP records live underwater video and sonar footage to gather data on marine wildlife in the area.

It forms part of the environmental monitoring campaign Nova Innovation is performing for the Nova Tidal Array project, which is being developed in three separate 500kW phases, allowing for careful environmental monitoring at each stage.

The ROP is a small steel frame structure with a ballast to hold it in place on the seabed. Nova Innovation has previously deployed this frame in Petit Passage and conducted many similar operations at its Shetland Tidal Array in Scotland.

Sitting on the seabed at a depth of at least 30 meters, with no surface infrastructure such as buoys or markers, the ROP does not hinder the movement of vessels as they are able to pass safely through the area above the device.

However, the use of static or mobile benthic fishing gear in the immediate area around the ROP should be avoided to prevent the risk of snagging, Nova Innovation noted.

To remind, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) recently gave an authorization to Nova Innovation to install five 100kW in-stream tidal turbines in Petit Passage.

The approval is related to the first phase of the larger 1.5MW tidal energy array project, which received approval from Nova Scotia’s Department of Energy and Mines late in 2019.

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