Interview with Dorothy Dankel on coexistence and circularity in wind energy.
“The fact of the matter is that we don’t know how nature is going to respond to floating offshore wind in particular,” Dorothy says. “It’s really important to meet with different people in the marine sector and (…) our industry is also dependent on a healthy ocean”.
Dorothy Dankel is Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF Ocean and the current coordinator of EERA JP Wind’s sub-programme 4.
Offshore wind is key to the development of wind energy and the green transition. However, its success depends on a balance of coexistence with other marine sectors and collaboration with emerging technologies like offshore aquaculture.
“Yet, many questions remain unanswered. How will nature respond to floating offshore wind farms,” she asks. “What are the electromagnetic impacts of cables on marine life?
These uncertainties also present opportunities for collaboration, leveraging new technologies to gather data for e.g. digital twins.
Circularity extends beyond mere recycling. It encompasses a comprehensive understanding of the value chains involved in wind turbine production, considering all emissions from cradle to grave.
“It’s basically life cycle assessment on steroids”, Dorothy adds. “There’s a lot of different analyses that need to converge so we can think about a real circular aspect of not just materials, but also the energy that’s made and how offshore wind can be best in class in regards to circularity.”
Dorothy Dankel is based in Bergen, Norway. She has her expertise in marine policy alignment and cross-sectoral work that involves biological population and ecosystem modelling, ocean management strategies, and co-existence between offshore wind and fisheries and aquaculture sectors.
Watch the video on LinkedIn
Related video:
Vibeke Stærkebye Nørstebø (also SINTEF):
“The social, economical and environmental aspects sometimes tend to be forgotten” says Vibeke. “It’s really important to see how we could work cross-disciplinary. That’s really important when it comes to identifying what research is needed in the future”
https://youtu.be/ugAMbL6UbLc
Explore more interviews on EERA JP Wind’s YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@eerajointprogrammeonwinden4258/videos
Read the full transcript:
“Coexistence is a really fundamental topic for the social sustainability of offshore wind that we are able to coexist with other marine sectors. We collaborate with offshore fisheries, shipping as well as emerging technologies like offshore aquaculture, and that we can do this either as a multi-use situation or invite fishers and fisher representatives to discussions about offshore wind areas and development, and that we also have a coexistence with nature. We’re not only thinking about the different sectors, but that our industry is also dependent on a healthy ocean.
The fact of the matter is that we don’t know how nature is going to respond to floating offshore wind in particular. It’s really important to meet with different people in regards to the marine environment. There’s electromagnetic aspects to cables. We don’t know if floating offshore wind will act as an attractor or a repellent to fish and zooplankton.
We also don’t know the consequences of cumulative effects of a future scenario for Europe where so many offshore wind sites are planned along the whole coast of Europe. So, we see it as an opportunity to collaborate with marine science, because now, with different offshore installations being built, we’ll have the opportunity to have eyes and ears in parts of the ocean we never had before. And this data can be collected through different types of technology with sensors and whatnot, but this has to be coordinated. This has to be kind of agreed upon in terms of the technical aspects and put together in a nice framework so that we can leverage that data for digital twins, and leverage that data for the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea to put it together with our data on the marine environment, fisheries, this and that. So it’s a great opportunity, but it takes a lot of coordination.
Circularity is also very important. Circularity goes beyond just recycling. But understanding the different value chains and the value chain streams that come into making a wind turbine, from the blades to the jackets to everything. It’s basically life cycle assessment on steroids. Understanding that there’s also scope one, scope two, scope three type of emissions. We need to not think about just the emissions in the assembly, but all the emissions that happen with all the different materials and the cradle to grave aspect.
There’s a lot of different analyzes that need to kind of converge so we can think about a real circular aspect of not just materials, but also the energy that’s made, and how offshore wind can be best in class in regards to circularity, and bringing these interesting research themes – also about how we can do things better – on the table.”
