Coastal and Offshore Wind Energy Generation: Is It Environmentally Benign?

Abstract

Offshore and coastal wind power is one of the fastest growing industries in many areas, especially those with shallow coastal regions due to the preferable generation conditions available in the regions. As with any expanding industry, there are concerns regarding the potential environmental effects which may be caused by the installation of the offshore wind turbines and their associated infrastructure, including substations and subsea cables. These include the potential impacts on the biological, physical and human environments. This review discusses in detail the potential impacts arising from offshore wind farm construction, and how these may be quantified and addressed through the use of conceptual models. It concludes that while not environmentally benign, the environmental impacts are minor and can be mitigated through good siting practices. In addition, it suggests that there are opportunities for environmental benefits through habitat creation and conservation protection areas.

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“…The differences in the identified fish and macro-invertebrate assemblages in the collections made with the 2 gear types highlight the importance of employing multiple types of gears for environmental assessments (Wilson et al, 2010). The beam trawl collected a higher proportion of juvenile fish, small noncommercial fish, and small macro-invertebrate prey species than the bottom trawl (Suppl.…”

“…Offshore wind farms have been gaining increased interest as a potential source of renewable energy (Wilson et al, 2010;Tabassum-Abbasi et al, 2014). The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has designated 8 wind energy areas (WEAs) on the northeast U.S. continental shelf between North Carolina and Massachusetts (Bailey et al, 2014).…”

“…Assessment of the impacts of the location, construction, and energy production of offshore wind farms on fish and macro-invertebrates on the northeast U.S. shelf is in the early stages. However, European countries have been conducting environmental assessments since the early 1990s that have resulted in review articles on the general impacts of, and long-term research needs for, offshore wind farms (Wilson et al, 2010;Lindeboom et al, 2011;Bailey et al, 2014;Bergstrom et al, 2014;Dai et al, 2015;Lindeboom et al, 2015). The reviews have generally concluded there are potentially minor to moderate effects on fish and macro-invertebrate communities.…”

“…The reviews have generally concluded there are potentially minor to moderate effects on fish and macro-invertebrate communities. These effects may result from increased anthropogenic noise and electromagnetic fields, increased turbidity, loss or degradation of existing bottom habitats, gains in hard bottom and structural habitats, and the limitation or exclusion of fisheries (Wilson et al, 2010;Bergstrom et al, 2014;Dai et al, 2015;Lindeboom et al, 2015). These effects all have the potential to modify community structure, including changes in species composition, diversity, and productivity (Bergstrom et al, 2014;Lindeboom et al, 2015).…”

“…The reviews highlight the need for before, during, and after construction monitoring to examine ecosystem level effects and the need to continue to track effects over the long term (Lindeboom et al, 2011;Lindenboom et al, 2015). Recommendations also include the use of multiple gear types to examine the entire ecosystem (Wilson et al, 2010), the examination of population-level effects (Bergstrom et al, 2014;Lindeboom et al, 2015), and the implementation of sampling across large spatial scales (Dai et al, 2015;Lindeboom et al, 2015).…”