Chemical emissions from offshore wind farms: assessing impacts, gaps and opportunities

General Information

The primary aim of offshore wind farms (OWFs) is to produce renewable energy. OWFs contribute to UN sustainable development goals on clean energy and climate action and offer opportunities for spatial multi-use with nature conservation and aquaculture. The type and environmental impact of chemical emissions from OWFs have been largely overlooked to date, although the first investigations indicate that OWFs represent a source of chemical emissions. As the North Sea is a highly dynamic system, these emissions can have a transboundary impact. Given the large increase in the number of OWFs, transnational cooperation is required to minimise contaminant emissions and ensure a healthy ecosystem. The Anemoi project, named after the Greek wind gods, aims to characterise chemical emissions from OWFs in the North Sea basin, assess their impact on the marine ecosystem, evaluate opportunities for aquaculture at OWFs and propose effective monitoring tools and reduction measures to ensure sustainable multi-use of the marine environment.
Anemoi will increase our knowledge of the sources of chemical emissions and their potential risks, which is essential information for OWF industry and for policy development. The project will propose regulatory adaptations needed to reach internationally harmonised environmental legislation on OWF emissions within the North Sea area. Anemoi will bring forward solutions to reduce chemical emissions from corrosion protection systems and applied coatings, and will provide necessary elements for its sound management.
To achieve the project objectives a strong participatory stakeholder framework will be established. Here, project partners and stakeholders from industry, policy and the public sector will participate in bi-directional knowledge exchange. This knowledge will be used to guide the project activities and proposed reduction measures, as well as to create new findings on the societal landscape that drives OWF development
Hereon will work in particular on the analysis of chemical emissions from corrosion protection systems into the surrounding marine waters as well as on the role of microplastics released from the used paint system or abrasion from the turbine blades.

EU-Programme Acronym and Subprogramme Area	INTERREG NORTH SEA Programme 2021-27
Project Type	Regular Project
Contract Number	41-2-13-22
Co-ordinator	Eigen Vermogen van het Instituut voor Landbouw-, Visserij- en Voedingsonderzoek (BE)

Funding for the Project (€)	Funding for Hereon (€)
3,282,273	262,171

Contact Person at Hereon

Dr. Daniel Pröfrock, Institute of Coastal Environmental Chemistry, Department Inorganic Environmental Chemistry (KUA), Phone: +49 4152 87 2846 E-mail contact

Participants

Bundesamt für Seeschiffahrt und Hydrographie (DE), Eigen Vermogen van het Instituut voor Landbouw-, Visserij- en Voedingsonderzoek (BE), Institut Francais de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer IFREMER (FR), Provinciale Ontwikkelings Maatschappij West- Vlaanderen (BE), Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences (BE), Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NL), SINTEF OCEAN AS (NO), Technical University of Denmark (DK), Technische Universität Braunschweig (DE), Universiteit Antwerpen (BE)

Last Update: 24. April 2023