FOCUS ON: Offshore Wind

Following the recent news that the UK reached the wind energy milestone of total wind power capacity exceeding 30 gigawatts (enough electricity to supply over 26 million homes!), we wanted to showcase some of our latest research relating to offshore windfarms:

1- PML scientists evaluate the evidence-base on the impacts of offshore wind farms

https://www.pml.ac.uk/News/PML-scientists-evaluate-the-evidence-base-on-the-i

An article in The Conversation by our Dr Claire Szostek following the publication of the scientific paper ‘Primary vs grey: A critical evaluation of literature sources used to assess the impacts of offshore wind farms’

2- Protecting the ocean through marine net gain

https://www.pml.ac.uk/News/Protecting-the-ocean-through-marine-net-gain

Our scientists reveal several key insights from offshore windfarm stakeholders, in relation to the development of marine net gain policy and implementation.

3- Offshore wind farms: new paper reveals global impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services

https://www.pml.ac.uk/News/Offshore-wind-farms-new-paper-reveals-global-impac

Scientists at PML led a paper that, for the first time, takes a holistic approach to investigating the global impacts of offshore wind farms on biodiversity and ecosystem services, to support decision making during this time of rapid windfarm expansion.

4- UK fishing community shares its views on offshore wind

https://www.pml.ac.uk/News/UK-fishing-community-shares-its-views-on-offshore

A survey on the impacts of offshore wind farms on commercial fishing in the UK was led by our scientists, with preliminary results shared in this article.

5- Impacts of offshore wind farms: new evidence base

https://www.pml.ac.uk/News/Impacts-of-offshore-wind-farms-new-evidence-base

New evidence database on the environmental impacts of offshore windfarm developments and the outcomes for marine ecosystem services was launched by our Sea and Society team.

6- WATCH: summary findings of the Decommissioning – Relative Effects of Alternative Management Strategies (DREAMS) project

https://www.pml.ac.uk/News/Concluding-DREAMS-with-a-new-video

A video was created to summarise the findings of the ‘Decommissioning – Relative Effects of Alternative Management Strategies (DREAMS)’ project.

7- Using marine autonomy to support the sustainable expansion of offshore wind

Dr Juliane Wihsgott of Plymouth Marine Laboratory is using marine autonomous robotics to undertake investigations of marine ecosystem impacts that result from the growing presence of offshore wind farms in UK coastal seas.

Read more: Using marine autonomy to support sustainable expansion of offshore wind farms | National Centre for Coastal Autonomy
 

8- Exploring the impacts of offshore wind development across all levels of the marine food chain

The PELAgIO project looks at the predicted changes across a range of scales from plankton productivity to the availability of prey for top predators, as well as broader consequences at the ecosystem level.