Connecting science and policy for the coexistence of offshore wind and thriving marine ecosystems

The next few decades will see big changes to our climate and to life on our planet. Moving to renewable energy, including offshore wind, will play a major role in cutting the emissions contributing to climate change, but we don’t yet fully know how this transition will affect marine biodiversity. As the UK leads the way in delivering offshore wind energy, ECOWind is committed to understanding how these efforts can be carried out in harmony with priorities to protect and enhance marine life.

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ABOUT ECOWind

ECOWind is bringing together experts from science, policy and industry to understand how offshore wind affects ecosystems…

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Credit: The Crown Estate/Ben Barden Photography Ltd

What our partners have to say

The expansion of offshore wind is essential, but we have to ensure it is carried out with the marine environment in mind. ECOWind aims to fill some of the biggest gaps in our knowledge to help inform this process as efficiently as possible - by ensuring that the research undertaken is genuinely useful and usable for policy, regulation and management.

Professor Colin Moffat
ECOWind Scientific Advisory Group Chair

We are excited to see ECOWind take shape into a truly pioneering programme of work. By bringing together industry, government, and some of the brightest brains in the academic community, we will be connecting science and policy at every step of the way to make sure that the research generated is as effective as possible.

Mandy King
Programme Manager, Offshore Wind Evidence and Change Programme
The Crown Estate

ECOWind takes a fresh, impact-led approach, based on nurturing the creation of robust science with direct applications for marine policy and management. What does that mean? It means this is not science to be kept on the shelf, but work that will directly inform how we develop our renewable energy landscape as a nation, and make sure we do that without damaging the incredible abundance of UK seas.

Professor Dickon Howell
ECOWind Champion

Keep up to date

Follow us on Twitter at @ECOWind_UK

ECOWind
@ECOWind_UK

1 day ago

Exciting new research now out from #ECOWINGS! Investigating common guillemots, black-legged kittiwakes, razorbills, & Atlantic #puffin, this study sheds light on how #fishery closures affect the diets & breeding success of some key #seabirds species. 👉buff.ly/3HlTJKE

ECOWind
@ECOWind_UK

6 days ago

A new paper in @FrontMarineSci characterises seabed sediments at offshore #RenewableEnergy sites in the #IrishSea, including #OffshoreWindFarms, & provides recommendations on ways to minimise the environmental impacts of ocean energy technologies. 👉buff.ly/3LiLD7J

ECOWind
@ECOWind_UK

1 week ago

A new @SciReports paper studies the large scale effects of #OffshoreWind farms on #seabirds of high #conservation concern, showing that the distribution of loons changed significantly in one area of the #NorthSea before & after wind farm construction. 👉buff.ly/43VGIAX

ECOWind
@ECOWind_UK

1 week ago

A new paper in @PolicyMarine investigates effective spatial management in the southern #NorthSea & the trade-offs that exist between #fisheries, #OffshoreWind & #MarineProtectedAreas in an area with multiple uses & competing objectives. Read more👉 buff.ly/3MKWzvY

ECOWind
@ECOWind_UK

2 weeks ago

Biologists at @Havforskningen have shown that low-frequency sounds produced by #OffshoreWind turbines can potentially attract larval cod, altering the early life of nearby microscopic fish. Read more👉 buff.ly/418guth

ECOWind
@ECOWind_UK

2 weeks ago

A recent study in @FrontiersIn Marine Science investigates how exploratory drilling, a step in the pre-construction phase of #OffshoreWind farms, impacts marine mammals through disturbances to the #marine soundscape. Read the paper here 👉 buff.ly/4360vNO