RWE, in partnership with ARC Marine, is advancing its joint pilot project Reef Enhancement for Scour Protection (RESP) at the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm. This initiative, co-funded by Innovate UK, is trialling sustainable, nature-inclusive reef cubes as an alternative to traditional rock-based scour protection. The approach aims to enhance marine biodiversity while protecting offshore infrastructure.
Over the past 18 months, the RESP project has reached several key milestones. Hydrodynamic stability testing of the reef cube scour pad has been completed at HR Wallingford’s physical modelling facilities. Ecological baseline surveys have also been carried out. In addition, the project has secured a marine licence for full-scale deployment of more than 75,000 reef cubes at Rampion and all necessary deployment contracts have now been placed.
A scalable manufacturing process has been developed using locally sourced, low-carbon and recycled materials. The reef cubes, designed and produced by ARC Marine, include a mix of 15 cm and 35 cm units. They feature rough surfaces and built-in shelter spaces to encourage the settlement and protection of marine species such as European seabass, common starfish and brown crab.
The RESP project builds on ARC Marine’s success in RWE’s 2022 Innovation Ecology Award and represents a step forward in combining infrastructure protection with ecological restoration.
Image: credit: ARC marine
