Chemical emissions from offshore wind farms: From identification to challenges in impact assessment and regulation 

Highlights

• More than 200 compounds that can be emitted from offshore wind farms are listed.
• Coatings and anodes account for the highest number of potentially released compounds.
• Lack of occurrence and detailed toxicity data hamper a full risk assessment.
• Regulations to reduce offshore wind farm chemical emissions are not yet harmonized.

Fig. 1. Overview of chemical compounds (n = 228) and their potential sources identified in this review. For more information on individual compounds, CAS numbers can be used to find the respective compound in Zapata Corella et al. (2025).

Fig. 2. Percentages of (a) chemical origin and (b) main sources for chemical compounds potentially emitted by OWFs. All 228 identified compounds were assigned to at least one group.

Elena Hengstmann, Pablo Zapata Corella, Katharina Alter, Maria J. Belzunce-Segarra, Andy M. Booth, Javier Castro-Jiménez, Niklas Czerner, Karien De Cauwer, Geneviève Deviller, Alessio Gomiero, Nils Goseberg, Simone Hasenbein, Torben Kirchgeorg, Claire Mason, Wiebke Pape, Koen Parmentier, Anna Plaß, Daniel Pröfrock, Ali Sarhadi, David Vanavermaete, Johan van der Molen, Pedro Almeida Vinagre, Daniel Wood, Ingo Weinberg, Christian Windt, Alexa Zonderman, Jennifer Kenyon, Bavo de Witte

Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), Marine Sciences Department, Wüstland, Hamburg, Germany
IFREMER, CCEM Contamination Chimique des Écosystèmes Marins, Nantes, France
Department of Coastal Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, the Netherlands
AZTI, Marine Research Division (Basque Research and Technology Alliance – BRTA), Herrera Kaia, Pasaia, Spain
SINTEF Ocean, Trondheim, Norway
Leichtweiß-Institute for Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Operational Directorate Natural Environment, Brussels, Belgium
DERAC, Environmental Risk Assessment of Chemicals consultancy, Suce-sur-Erdre, France
Norwegian Research Centre- NORCE, Dep of Climate and Environment, Randaberg, Norway
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), Lowestoft, UK
Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Institute of Coastal Environmental Chemistry, Department Inorganic Environmental Chemistry, Geesthacht, Germany
Department of Wind and Energy Systems, Technical University of Denmark, Risø Campus, Roskilde, Denmark
Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Animal Sciences Unit – Aquatic Environment and Quality, Ostend, Belgium
WavEC Offshore Renewables – Marine Environment & Licensing, Edifício Diogo Cão, Doca de Alcântara Norte, Lisbon, Portugal
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, DC, United States of America
Coastal Research Center, Joint Research Facility of Leibniz Univ. Hannover and Technische Universität Braunschweig, Hannover, Germany

Marine Pollution Bulletin: Volume 215, June 2025, 117915

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