The environmental research program for MFW Bałtyk I is being launched

Equinor and Polenergia start a comprehensive pre-investment program of marine environment research for the purpose of environmental impact assessment of the MFW Bałtyk I offshore wind farm with a capacity of 1,560 MW. The research covering four consecutive phenological periods will last at least one year.

The aim of the program, which is to be implemented by MEWO – a Polish company, is to identify environmental conditions in the MFW Bałtyk I area and in the zone of its potential impact. The project is located at the boundary of the Polish Exclusive Economic Zone at a height of Łeba municipality in the Pomorskie Voivodship. It is located at a distance of 81 km from the port in Łeba, on waters with a depth of 25–35 meters.

The marine environment research program is planned to launch in December 2020 and will last at least 12 months. The research will include collection of data on all elements of the marine ecosystem, including in particular:
• sea water quality and hydrological and meteorological conditions,
• seabed conditions, including the quality of benthic sediments and the presence of raw materials,
• underwater background noise,
• cultural heritage, including archeological one,
• benthos, i.e. plants and animals living on, in or near the seabed,
• fish,
• sea birds and birds flying over the farm area in migratory periods,
• sea mammals,
• bats flying over the farm area in migratory periods.
The launch of the environmental research program for the MFW Bałtyk I is a milestone on the path to obtain a decision on environmental conditions – one of the key documents necessary for the project implementation.

Equinor and Polenergia are jointly implementing three power projects on the Baltic Sea with a total capacity of 3,000 MW. As the first entities in Poland, they have already obtained two final and valid environmental decisions for the construction of the MFW Bałtyk III (July 2016) and MFW Bałtyk II (April 2017) together with a connection agreement and a valid environmental decision for the construction of transmission infrastructure (March 2019). The MFW Bałtyk I holds valid permits for location and has connection conditions obtained from the transmission system operator.
For the MFW Bałtyk II and MFW Bałtyk III projects, as ones of the most advanced in Poland, based on the conducted preliminary geological surveys of the seabed and the completed two-year wind measurement campaign using the LIDAR system, works on technical concepts and supply chain are carried out.