Ocean Ecology Limited (OEL) has successfully completed a full geophysical survey of Falmouth Harbour’s Bay test-site for offshore renewable energy projects (FaBTest) – providing a package of data which will speed up and facilitate real-world testing for green energy models and technology.
The survey data, which includes FaBTest’s seabed topography, make-up, depth, features and texture, will potentially help developers of renewable energy projects plan their deployments at the site.
FaBTest itself is a 1.5km area of seabed in Falmouth Bay, about 4.5km off the coast within Falmouth Harbour Authority’s Waters, which has been leased by the Harbour from the Crown Estate to allow testing of devices related to renewable energy and associated equipment.
In June 2026 the Ocean Ecology team aboard their survey vessel Seren Las used Automated Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) to collect multibeam echosounder (MBES), sidescan sonar (SSS), magnetometer and sub-bottom profile data as part of a full coverage geophysical survey.
Ocean Ecology’s Head of Projects Sam Holmes says, “It was great to see the AUVs in action collecting high quality data, and to gain insights into this emerging technology with the support of close industry partners Falmouth Harbour and Bedrock Ocean.
“We hope that this data will provide potential developers access to key information to help them to plan their real-world tests.This information should help to inform device developers of the seabed type present at FaBTest to help design effective anchoring systems and protect environmental features. Up to date information on habitats may also help MMO (Marine Management Organisation) licencing decisions by providing up to date information on habitat locations within the FaBTest site.”
Since 2012 FaBTest has been the Falmouth Harbour test site for several renewable energy projects and associated technologies including a pioneering green energy Demonstrator model by Buoyant Production Technologies (BPT) and SeaThor’s modular marine CableSpring.
Falmouth Harbour’s Environment Manager Vicki Spooner says, “FaBTest is providing a tremendous real-world test bed for the kind of green energy technologies which the world desperately needs. We aim to do everything in our power to help speed up the development of these technologies and that’s exactly what Ocean Ecology’s geophysical survey will help to do when it comes to developers planning their tests in future. “They’ll have the opportunity to purchase the Ocean Ecology survey data to aid planning of deployments at FaBTest, saving time and money on surveying – rather than having to start this process themselves from scratch with the time and expense that entails.”
Ocean Ecology will be returning to the FaBTest site later this year to complete environmental sampling which will complement the geophysical survey.
Organisations interested in testing their renewable energy-related projects at FaBTest should contact the Falmouth Harbour team. For more information on this and other work of Falmouth Harbour including its wide range of commercial and environmental initiatives visit www.falmouthharbour.co.uk
