Galway Bay Test Site Decommissioning Plan

This report presents a decommissioning plan for the Galway Bay wave energy test site and the SeaPower Platform wave energy device, located off Spiddal, Co. Galway. It describes the background to the test site, the location and layout of site infrastructure, and the equipment to be decommissioned, including the SeaPower Platform, moorings and anchors, cardinal marks, dive boat moorings, the SmartBay data buoy, and the waverider buoy. The plan sets out proposed decommissioning procedures, vessel requirements, health and safety arrangements, navigational notifications, seabed clearance, site restoration, and post-decommissioning monitoring. It also considers relevant environmental factors, including seabed sediments, benthic communities, marine mammals, water quality, and nearby conservation areas. The report concludes that decommissioning activities are expected to disturb only a relatively small area of seabed and are not anticipated to have significant environmental impacts, provided that best-practice procedures and monitoring are followed. Post-decommissioning environmental monitoring is proposed for a six-month period to verify that no adverse impacts arise and to record changes in the site environment after the cessation of test-site activity.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/10793/2197

Citation

Marine Institute (2017). Galway Bay Test Site Decommissioning Plan. Galway, Ireland.