Conference on the environmental impact of offshore wind farms

An international scientific symposium on the environmental impact of offshore wind farms took place in Brussels, from 26 until 28 November 2013.

During this conference, anticipated positive and negative impact of offshore wind farms on the marine environment were discussed. The general aim of the symposium was to optimize future monitoring programmes based on information obtained in the past. During the first day of the symposium, scientists presented the conclusions from six years of research performed at the wind farms in the Belgian part of the North Sea. On the second day, an international panel of experts presented state of the art knowledge on environmental impacts of offshore wind farms worldwide. The third day there was an networking excursion to a Belgian offshore wind farm on the research vessel ‘Belgica’.

It was a very successful event with constructive networking and promising proposals for collaborative monitoring in the future. The report, presenting an integrated overview of all scientific findings of the Belgian offshore wind farm monitoring programme can be downloaded here. All work presented during the conference can be downloaded here.