While the proposed Illawarra offshore wind farm has sparked concerns about underwater noise, its impact on marine life may be overestimated and less harmful than climate change effects, according to University of Wollongong (UOW) researchers.
Blue Energy Futures Lab, a UOW research team, has discouraged rejecting offshore wind on environmental grounds because “the cost of inaction [on climate change] is worse than the cost of action.”
UOW PhD candidate Sunnefa Yeatman Omarsdottir, who researches international policy on marine noise pollution, said offshore wind energy has many environmental advantages over fossil fuel energy, and that related noise could be contained well.
“Noise from the renewable energy industry has tighter regulations [than the fossil fuel industry] as it is a new industry, and therefore, they use newer noise mitigation technology,” MS Omarsdottir said.
MS Omarsdottir also stated that marine seismic surveys, exclusively used for locating oil and gas fields, produce the most harmful noise in offshore energy extraction.
“I know that seismic surveys are extremely loud noises, and they are very damaging to marine species,” MS Omarsdottir said.
“There’s presumably going to be drilling, explosions, and then a continuous noise as they are extracting [oil or gas].
“Oil spills, pollution, and climate change are of course also higher for the oil and gas industry.”
The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) emphasises that offshore wind farm noise is less harmful than that of fossil fuel extraction and that there is no scientific evidence that the noise could have severe impacts on whales.
Additionally, the proposed Illawarra offshore wind farm area is currently a high-traffic shipping zone for commercial vessels to and from Port Kembla, making shipping the main source of noise harming marine life in the area.
As Port Kembla dispatches around 14 million tonnes of coal each year, this shipping is fueled largely by fossil fuel demand.
Underwater noise pollution from offshore wind turbines is also relatively low compared to noise from large commercial ships, according to research from Tougarrd.
In 2023, nearly two-thirds of NSW energy production was generated by burning coal.
The NSW Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Act, enacted last year, aims to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and involves the closure of major coal plants in the coming years.
The reduced coal-generated energy will all be replaced by renewable energy.
Ms Omarsdottir emphasised the delicate balance between proactively moving away from fossil fuels while moving toward renewable energy generation sustainably and carefully.
“The Illawarra is a biodiverse area, so it would be imperative to do an environmental impact assessment to know the risks before starting to build a wind farm,” MS Omarsdottir said.
The proposed Illawarra offshore wind farm area is still awaiting ministerial approval.
