Habitat-Creation in the Sustainable Development of Marine Renewable Energy

Abstract

Marine renewable energy is widely recognized as an alternative energy source to mitigate the effects of climate change linked to CO2 emissions, and there has been rapid expansion of offshore wind farms in Europe. The development of marine renewable energy is not without environmental concerns, including ecological costs and benefits of each project. Among the benefits are that it is highly likely that structures associated with marine renewable energy have the potential to act as artificial reefs, and possibly contribute to creation of new, hard-substrate habitats for a number of sessile and motile colonizing species. The habitat-creation potential, due to this artificial reef effect, could be a key issue of the sustainable development of marine renewable energy. This chapter presents a brief review of the existing knowledge on the reef effect, and indicates future directions for research. The findings from monitoring of the effects of “windmill artificial reefs” in the North Sea are summarized as a basis for considering research needs. Ecosystem-based approaches, reliable and quantitative assessment, and ecological consideration of the structure designs are recommended as future research tasks. Finally, the scientific basis of the ecological benefits from artificial reef effects is also discussed in relation to the possibility of co-locating marine renewable energy development with local fisheries.