WREN – Working Together to Resolve Environmental Effects of Wind Energy
Minutes from November 13, 2014 Conference Call
Call Attendees:
Name
Shane McGuinness
Roel May
Joana Bernardino
Hans Buser
Finlay Bennett
Jocelyn Brown-Saracino
Luke Hanna
Karin Sinclair
Elise DeGeorge
Sam Rooney
Country
Ireland
Norway
Portugal
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
Organization
Bird Watch Ireland
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA)
Bio3
nateco
Marine Scotland Science
US Department of Energy (DOE)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
All participants on the call introduced themselves. The primary purpose of this conference call was to
finalize details for the agenda of the upcoming in-person meeting, scheduled for December 2, 2014 at the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) in Broomfield,
Colorado, United States. A draft agenda was sent out ahead of the call.
Several current and potential members will not be able to travel to the U.S.; however, those that are able
to join by calling in agreed to participate for the first three (3) hours of the meeting. Thus, the meeting
will begin at 8am MT in Broomfield (and 3pm UTC). The meeting agenda will be revised to focus on
those topics that would benefit most from a full group discussion during the early part of the meeting.
ACTION: Call-in information will be sent out and will include webinar access so that we can view
documents if needed. A revised agenda will also be sent.
Luke gave a brief summary of WRENHub, including a status update. In advance of the meeting,
participants would like the opportunity to preview WRENHub. ACTION: Luke will provide Karin a date
when a link will be available to view WRENHub. Once the link is available, Karin will pass it on to all
participants.
Jocelyn discussed the status of the interviews being conducted for the adaptive management (AM) white
paper. Given that a draft of the AM paper is anticipated to be available for review in April, 2015, we
should discuss which other white paper topics to begin working on. This will be included in the Dec 2
agenda.
Elise led a discussion on the development of the 2nd webinar, scheduled for December 9, 2014, at
8:00PT/4pm UTC. The theme is Attraction and Interaction of Marine Mammals and Seabirds to Offshore
Wind Farms. ACTION: Provide Elise with suggestions of other webinar presenters.
We briefly discussed the status of the stakeholder survey activity. ACTION: Hans has completed the
stakeholder survey effort for Switzerland and will provide a presentation on Dec 2. The US will also
provide a presentation.
The other topics that will be discussed on Dec 2 what will be presented with respect to WREN at the
CWW, initial planning for the WREN meeting in Berlin, other future meetings (including in Switzerland
in fall, 2015 and hosts for 2016 meetings). ACTION: Please have your calendar available during the
meeting so we can begin to decide on some dates for future meetings.
The WREN work package will be reviewed, and revised as needed, during the Dec 2 meeting. The
activities, action items, and timelines for completion need to be reviewed and revised for submission to
IEA Wind Executive Committee by the Operating Agent. ACTION: Please be available to contribute to
this discussion.
We discussed logistics for those that will be attending the meeting in person, including providing rides for
Hans and Finlay from the Omni to the NWTC. ACTION: Elise will pick up riders at 7:20am. Bring
passport for access to the NWTC.
Karin will host a dinner at her house on Dec 2. All are welcome to join. ACTION: If you have not
already done so, please let Karin know if you will be attending.