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+--- Thread: Article As offshore wind farms ramp up, scientists flag potential impacts (/thread-14545.html)
As offshore wind farms ramp up, scientists flag potential impacts - C C - Aug 22, 2023
https://undark.org/2023/08/21/as-offshore-wind-ramps-up-scientists-flag-potential-impacts/
EXCERPT: . . . Scientists already know some of the local impacts of wind farms. For example, they can, somewhat counterintuitively, reduce local wind speed. They also create their own local climates, and cause disturbances in the water in the form of a downwind wake. But what those changes might mean for marine life or for industries that depend on ocean resources is something that scientists are still trying to figure out.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., offshore wind has become the subject of bitter political disagreement and fear, fueling lobbying and lawsuits aimed at halting projects before they even begin. As researchers work to model potential outcomes, they stress that they don’t want to derail offshore wind, but rather seek to better understand it so that any negative effects can be minimized, and positive effects maximized.
Scientists have a lot more work to do before they can know the true effect of thousands of offshore wind turbines, as well as how and where they should be built. There may even be questions they haven’t thought to ask yet, said Ute Daewel, a scientist who studies marine ecosystems at The Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon in Germany.
“It’s so complex,” she said, “that I sometimes think we probably also miss a lot of things that might happen.” (MORE - missing details)