North Sea wind farms may be reshaping sediment flows by 1.5 million tons a year

Offshore wind farms are an important pillar of the European Union’s renewable energy strategy: by 2050, the EU aims to increase capacity in the North Sea more than tenfold. A new study from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon shows that the expansion of wind farms can change the natural transport and deposition of sediment on a large scale and in the long term. The German Bight is particularly affected. The researchers published their results in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment.