The FINO research platforms in the North Sea and Baltic Sea were established in potential suitability areas for offshore wind energy production on the basis of the German government's 2002 strategy paper on the use of wind energy. With the help of the research platforms, meteorological and oceanographic permanent measurements are to be carried out, which serve the accompanying ecological research and environmental monitoring during the construction and operation of the offshore wind power plants.

As the second of a total of three BMU research platforms, the FINO 2 research platform was erected in 2007 in the southwestern Baltic Sea, at the shoal "Kriegers Flak". It is located at a particularly representative site, the northwestern edge of the Arkona Basin, which is very important for the saltwater balance of the Baltic Sea. In addition to the Baltic II wind farm, which is currently under construction, 2 further wind farms are planned at this location, which together will contain over 320 offshore wind turbines. The FINO project is currently funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). The client was the Schifffahrtsinstitut Warnemünde (SIW), which was also contracted to operate the platform until 2010. As part of the transfer of FINO 2 to federal ownership, operation and maintenance was awarded to DNV following a tender process.

The hydrographic measurement systems and measurements on all three FINO platforms are coordinated by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH). The Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, a partner of the BSH for more than 30 years, took over the development, setup and long-term operation of such a system on the Baltic Sea platform in 2012. As a result, an equipment concept adapted to the conditions at "Kriegers Flak" was designed, which does justice to the strong stratification as well as the high vertical and temporal variability. The implementation allows continuous evidence collection of all important hydrographic data at the wind measurement platform, including hourly remote data transmission to the FINO database. The measurement system was comprehensively developed, installed step by step and transferred to continuous operation. The long-term data series obtained in the meantime fully meet the requirements of the turbine and installer consortium, economic enterprises and support research on offshore wind energy.

As confirmed at numerous workshops, the measured salinity and oxygen profiles, chlorophyll and turbidity distributions, and sea state and current data are essential to the wind energy industry. The construction-related research forms the basis for environmentally sound construction and the preservation of evidence by the companies involved in the construction, as well as for accompanying environmental policy decisions by the federal government.

In the current project phase, the focus is on the new development of a profiling sensor package. This should make it possible to establish an oceanic measurement chain on other platforms. This can only be achieved if the energy demand is oriented towards renewable energies.