Abstract
The demand for renewable energy has led to a significant growth of offshore wind farms in European waters. According to the statistics of the European Wind Energy Association of January 2013 the total installed capacity in Europe increased to 4000 MW in December 2012 (Arapogianni et al., 2013) and is expected to increase a factor 37 in 2030. Turbine dimensions increased from 2 MW in 2006 to 5 MW at present.
In the Netherlands the first two offshore wind farms, the “Offshore Wind Farm Egmond aan Zee” (OWEZ) and “Prinses Amalia Wind Park” (PAWK) were built in respectively 2006 and 2007. Beside the main goal of producing electric energy from wind resource the construction of the first wind farm (OWEZ) was also used to demonstrate the impact of such a construction on the environment. The construction was licenced to NoordZeeWind, a consortium of Shell and NUON. The 36 turbines of 3 MW each were completed in August 2006. To demonstrate the environmental impact an extensive Monitoring and Evaluation Program (MEP) was developed. The program was divided 5 sub-projects, carried out by IMARES: (1) Effects of the wind farm on fish, (2) Individual behaviour of fish in the wind farm (3) Underwater acoustic characteristics of the wind farm operation, (4) Habitat preferences of harbour seals in the Dutch coastal area, (5) The effects of the OWEZ wind farm on harbour porpoise. The results of the third sub-project are presented here and focus on characteristics of wind farm related production noise and the effects of the noise to the hearing of harbour seal (Phoca vitulina), harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus).