Environmental impacts of offshore renewables
Knowledge of impacts from offshore windfarm developments on the marine environment and its many natural features is rapidly increasing, but we are still lacking data, long term effect monitoring and sufficient evidence. Based on current understanding, unless developed sustainably, offshore wind farms may have substantial impacts on biodiversity and the health of the marine environment.
OSPAR established a group on Offshore Renewable Energy Developments (ICG-ORED) in 2021 which is taking the lead in progressing tasks and actions related to OSPAR’s North-East Atlantic Environmental Strategy 2030 Operational Objective S12.O4: By 2023, OSPAR will develop common principles and by 2024 develop guidance to promote and facilitate sustainable development and scaling up of offshore renewable energy in a way that cumulative environmental impacts are minimised.
ICG-ORED will frame its work in the context of the national and international obligations to increase energy generation from renewable sources, to meet increasing demands for electricity and facilitate reductions in the use of fossil fuels as part of climate change mitigation commitments.
The work of ICG-ORED is broadly related to all offshore renewable energy developments and their potential pressures that are exerted on the marine environment in the entire OSPAR maritime area.
This includes (but is not limited to) pressures and impact from:
- development of offshore renewable energy sites (e.g., survey of the development site, building activities of installations and cable-laying, industrial emissions into the marine environment including sound energy);
- operational phase of the installation (including maintenance activities [and cables]);
- decommissioning (e.g., the activities related to the installation, removal and the potential habitat degradation due to disappearance of original substrate or the hard substrate that was created as a result of the structure);
- artificial islands (built for installation and management of renewable energy installations, power substations, power converters. …) and offshore hydrogen production and storage.
ICG-ORED may also consider interactions between offshore renewables and other human activities, in particular the impacts that the former might have on the latter because these interactions might affect in the end the marine environment (potentially in a negative or positive way).
Cumulative impacts of developments on a regional seas scale or sea basin level will be given particular attention, considering the scope of activities above.
As part of OSPAR's Intermediate Assessment 2029, in 2026 OSPAR published an updated report on Offshore Renewable Energy Generation
Key documents
KEY DOCUMENTS
As part of OSPAR's Intermediate Assessment 2029, in 2026 OSPAR published an updated report on Offshore Renewable Energy Generation
Terms of reference for ICG-ORED
Quality Status Report 2023 Feeder Report on Offshore Renewable Energy Generation
Guidance on environmental considerations for the development of offshore wind farms (OSPAR Agreement 2008-03)
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Pilot assessment of cumulative impacts of offshore renewables on birds and Annex with maps*
*This report was commissioned by OSPAR and its development was steered by the Intersessional Correspondence Group on Offshore Renewable Energy Development (ICG-ORED). This report was written by a consortium led by Wageningen University & Research (WUR).
The views expressed in this report are those of Wagening Marine Research and do not necessarily represent the views of the OSPAR Commission.
Development of this report has been sponsored by Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.
Key facts: Offshore renewables in the North-East Atlantic
The past decade has seen substantial growth in offshore wind in the OSPAR Maritime Area driven by the urgent need to combat climate change and increase energy security. The shallow waters of the North Sea have high and widespread potential, making it the world’s leading region for deployed offshore wind capacity, while the Atlantic Ocean has a high natural potential for both bottom-fixed and floating offshore wind energy. According to the European Commission, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Germany are the leaders in offshore wind development in Europe.
By the end of 2019, there was 22 072 MW of installed offshore wind capacity in Europe, produced by over 5 000 turbines. The industry has attracted investments of €9.4bn per year in the last decade, more than any other renewable technology and is set to expand as countries strive to mitigate the effects of climate change and move towards low carbon energy generation (WindEurope, 2020).
Some increase in wave and tidal energy installations, including pilot projects, is anticipated to 2030, but significant cost reductions would be needed for these to play a significant role in energy generation.
Offshore renewables database
Whilst the majority of renewable developments in the OSPAR Maritime Area are large scale wind farms, commercial scale tidal and wave developments are now also being considered and implemented. OSPAR has therefore expanded its offshore renewables data to include all marine renewable developments.
Map available here: https://odims.ospar.org/en/maps/?layers=ospar_offshore_renewables_2025_02_001,ospar_inner_boundary_2016_01_002,ospar_outer_boundary_2016_01_001
