Abstract
Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) are becoming a more prominent source of renewable energy to help meet national climate goals. They can have negative effects on local marine ecosystems as well as positive ones. Strategies such as Nature Inclusive Design are employed to try to deal with energy demands and nature enhancement at the same time. However, there are different ideas on what nature should be enhanced and what the goals of NID should be. Moreover, when OWFs are decommissioned, discussions arise whether the option of partial decommissioning should be possible as it might improve local nature. This thesis employed the concept of storylines which analyses how actors construct stories to convey different understandings of a phenomenon. These stories contain different problem understandings and solutions and are supported by interests, values, facts and metaphors to strengthen the arguments. It is relevant to adopt the lens of storylines as dominant stories can eventually lead to different policy futures. The aim of this research was to see how the storylines that actors construct about Nature Inclusive Design in OWFs relate to discussions on decommissioning, focussing on nature inclusive OWFs in the Netherlands. First, within the storylines of NID, different understandings of the goal of NID were found and this related to arguments on partial decommissioning. When the goal of NID was more strongly focused on nature enhancement, there was more openness to keeping the option of partial decommissioning possible. Second, there were different understandings on what types of nature inclusive structures are seen as natural and whether human made structures should be left behind in the North Sea at all. When structures were seen as very unnatural, there was more apprehension of leaving them behind. On the other hand, actors who valued human-made structures more, were more open to partial decommissioning. This was also strongly highlighted through metaphors by for example calling NID structures either a “home” or a “cemetery”. Third, the storylines of NID brought together different actors that conveyed a variety of intertwining interests and values. Especially, economic and ecological interests of wind developers, researchers and NGOs intertwined. Fourth, storylines of NID related to arguments on decommissioning through the framing of other users of the sea. Other users of the sea were framed either positively or negatively to strengthen the argumentation of storylines and arguments for full and partial decommissioning. Lastly, the storylines of Nature Inclusive Design related to discussions on decommissioning through their resemblance to discourse on decommissioning of Oil and Gas platforms. The study showed the potential of the concept of storylines. It gives insight in how actors construct different stories supported by facts, interests, values and metaphors. These stories showed the different understandings actors can have of NID. Whether this will lead to policy change is unclear due to strong full decommissioning preferences of powerful governmental actors in the context of Offshore Wind as well as broader offshore decommissioning debates.