Image: NOAA.

In order to operate floating offshore wind on the ocean’s surface, we need to know what conditions are like far, far below the waves. In depths over a thousand feet deep, the ocean floor is mostly unmapped, with only scant knowledge about the geologic features present. Offshore wind developers are going to change that with autonomous underwater vehicles—think of them as the drones of the ocean: underwater robots that can map the ocean floor.

Ciara Emery and Joel Southall of RWE join the EcoNews to talk about how they plan to study the bottom of the ocean and how the research will feed into the design of the project.