Underwater Particle Acceleration Induced by a Wind Turbine in the Baltic Sea

Abstract

During the last decade, there has been a major interest in wind energy production. The number of offshore wind farms is increasing rapidly. Several nations are planning to switch to “green” power, increasing the numbers even more. The public awareness and the general focus on the environment require that wind-based energy should be ecologically harmless. Lately, it has been realized that the aquatic environment is also a soundscape, not at least due to the fact that many species make use of sound for communication, mating, finding prey, and avoiding predators. Furthermore, most studies have been concerned with the effect of the sound pressure component of sound, even though many species are sensitive to particle motion. For this reason, a particle motion sensor was built and deployed in close vicinity to a wind turbine where the generated particle motion in the ocean was characterized. The results are presented here.