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Offshore Wind Farms - Opportunity or Risk for Nature?

March 26, 2025

Offshore wind energy is being massively expanded in Europe. This is having some harmful effects on marine wildlife. Marine researchers in the North Sea are investigating just how serious the problem is.

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Offshore Wind Farms - Opportunity or Risk for Nature?
Image: NDR

What they have discovered is astonishing.

Offshore Wind Farms - Opportunity or Risk for Nature?
Image: NDR

Artificial reefs with completely new biotopes are forming underwater at the foundations of the turbines. The wind farms serve as a refuge for some fish. But not all creatures benefit from the offshore turbines. Harbor porpoises, for example, are driven away by the construction noise and some bird species collide with the turbines’ rotor blades.

Offshore Wind Farms - Opportunity or Risk for Nature?
Image: NDR

Scientists across Europe are trying to keep pace with the rapid expansion of offshore wind energy. The long-term effects on the marine environment in particular are still unclear. "Things are changing, but in which direction?” asks Belgian marine scientist Jan Vanaverbeke.

Offshore Wind Farms - Opportunity or Risk for Nature?
Image: NDR

Ursula Siebert from the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research in Hanover dissects porpoises that have washed up dead in the North and Baltic Seas. She has observed that the animals' sensitive ears are cracked. Is the damage caused by wind farm construction noise?

Offshore Wind Farms - Opportunity or Risk for Nature?
Image: NDR

Edible crabs, on the other hand, presumably benefit from the new underwater biotope, explains Wolfgang Nikolaus Probst from the Thünen Institute in Braunschweig. He has studied the edible crab populations off Heligoland.

Offshore Wind Farms - Opportunity or Risk for Nature?
Image: NDR

How can birds be protected from collisions with wind turbines? In Norway, scientists are experimenting with painted rotor blades - something that has already significantly reduced the risk of bird collisions with turbines on land.

 

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