Towards holistic, participative and adaptable governance for offshore wind farm decommissioning

The earliest generation of offshore wind farms across Europe soon approach their end-of-life phase. Recent academic and societal attention has centred on the ‘artificial reef effects’ of offshore wind farms, triggering concerns regarding how to appropriately approach the decommissioning of the monopiles. Wind turbines and their foundations are jurisdictionally expected to be fully removed. Partial decommissioning, in which structures are left in place, is raised as a potential alternative that is anticipated to have ecological benefits over full decommissioning. Despite a strong growing scientific interest in OWF decommissioning, as well as an increasing public debate on the issue, a comprehensive approach to decommissioning decision-making has not yet landed in the actual regulatory processes. This gap is strikingly apparent in the Netherlands, where two OWFs will be decommissioned in the coming years. This paper explores where stakeholders believe the current bottlenecks exist, and how progress can be made towards decisive but inclusive decision-making. Based on individual co-creation sessions with concerned stakeholders, it offers multiple recommendations, including broadly supported criteria to be considered when comparing decommissioning alternatives, as well as underlying perceptions or patterns to be recognised, such as liability concerns, ecosystem valuation, lock-in and path dependency. The discussions and conclusions from this paper can be applied in all countries where decommissioning of OWFs is imminent, and thereby be used as a guide towards inclusive, adaptive and holistic governance within marine management.