Abstract
The industrial use of the oceans has increased rapidly in the last decade, especially through the use of renewable energy sources at sea in the form of offshore wind farms (OWFs). This trend will continue over the next years and decades. The operation of OWFs not only introduces noise into the water from the operating offshore wind turbines (OWTGs), but also operational shipping traffic for maintenance- and repair purposes (OWF-related service traffic) represents another source of underwater noise. The lifetime of wind farms is about 25 years, so it can be assumed, that this will further introduce noise (continuous noise) into the water in the coming years, which could potentially cause avoidance- and disturbance effects for marine fauna. For the long-term environmentally compatible use of renewable energy sources at sea, this noise input into the water must therefore also be measured, evaluated and assessed in terms of its ecological impact.
The aim of the OWF Noise R&D-project is, firstly, to identify and quantify the main parameters influencing the noise input into the water from OWTGs in operation. On the other hand, the cumulative effect of the operating noise of the turbines, the operational OWF-related shipping traffic and the permanent background noise in and around the wind farms will be systematically investigated. For this purpose, the operating noise measurements of 27 wind turbines selected out of 24 wind farms were analyzed for the first time in the present study.