Australia will host new commercial offshore wind farm developments, including in Commonwealth waters off the coast of New South Wales (NSW) where early planning phases have already resulted in strong opposition, largely due to perceived negative environmental impacts. We review available research to inform the potential environmental impacts of floating offshore wind farms in the waters around NSW, at both the population scale (including marine mammals, seabirds, sea turtles, fish), as well as a community and ecosystem scale.
Environmental impacts depend on many factors, including wind farm characteristics that can influence the nature and scale of potential disturbance, and species and ecosystem traits that can affect their vulnerability to such disturbances. Developments around NSW will require floating foundations which have different potential environmental impacts to the bottom-fixed foundations predominately used overseas and planned elsewhere in Australia. Specific environmental impacts cannot be fully predicted until details about the planned developments for offshore wind farms are known and site-specific environmental baselines are undertaken. This review provides a first step for industry, government, and research sectors to understand the potential environmental impacts of floating offshore wind to Australian marine environments.