Wind reefs - Towards a net positive environmental impact of offshore wind farms decommissioning

This project investigates the impacts of offshore wind farm decommissioning on marine biodiversity and the social acceptance of various decommissioning scenarios. The project is focused around three objectives: 1) Identify and quantify the key impacts on marine biodiversity (both positive and negative) associated with a broad yet realistic range of decommissioning options such as “removal”, “leave in place” or “improvements” that enhance biodiversity or even create Net Positive Impacts; 2) Develop a Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method that integrates the impacts and evaluate the overall impact from various decommissioning options on different environmental impact categories, including marine biodiversity; and 3) Ground truth the new LCIA method in a case study of a wind farm.