Chemical Emissions from Offshore Wind in the North Sea, or, Needles in a Needlestack

The marine environment is and will continue to be subject to major changes as an area of interest in the transition to renewable sources of energy. Offshore wind farms are springing up throughout Europe and the world, with EU targets projecting 60 GW by 2030 and 300 GW by 2050. Further commercial and regulatory interests target the addition of additional marine renewables strategies to existing offshore wind energy construction goals, further increasing the variety of structures and technologies introduced to the oceans. Not only structures or industrial activities themselves lead to emissions, but also forms of protection (particularly galvanic anodes, meant to protect large steel structures from corrosion). Lacking is exact knowledge of how emissions from offshore renewable structures interact with and accumulate in their environment. Furthermore, existing uses and historical pollution of coastal areas in combination with a naturally variable, dynamic environment.This investigation makes use of nearly a decade of data from offshore wind farms and nearby sites in the North Sea, primarily conducting an analysis of metal mass fractions in the fine fraction (