The seafloor footprint of offshore wind infrastructure in the United States Ocean
Increasing numbers of wind turbines are installed in the ocean, yet the total physical area or “footprint” of these structures remains unknown. We projected turbine footprints for U.S. ocean wind energy areas leased as of 2024. Calculations revealed turbines may occupy seafloor (18.20 km2; turbine foundations plus scour protection area) and water column (6.33 km2; vertical surface area underwater) footprints of similar magnitude to U.S. artificial reefs installed from 1899 to 2020.
Authors
- Brendan J. Runde (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2125-4486)
- Avery B. Paxton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4871-9167)
Institutions
- The Nature Conservancy (US)
- NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Southeast Fisheries Science Center (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Discover Oceans
- Published
- 2025-10-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s44289-025-00097-y
- Primary Topic
- Wind Energy Research and Development
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00