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Research on the impact of the expansion of renewable energies in the North Sea be honored with the Kurt Hartwig Siemers Award 2024
The Hamburgische Wissenschaftliche Stiftung gives the Kurt Hartwig Siemers Science Award every two years to researchers who have made an outstanding scientific achievement beyond their doctoral thesis. This year's recipient is Dr Nils Christiansen, who graduated from the University of Hamburg and is researching renewable energies at the Helmholtz Zentrum Hereon in the Cluster of Excellence „Climate, Climatic Change, and Society (CLICCS)”. The award is endowed with 30.000 euros.
Offshore wind turbines affect ocean currents, offshore hydrogen platforms affect the concentration and temperature of seawater. These effects could have consequences for the ecosystem in the North Sea if renewable energies are expanded. This is shown by the research results of Dr. Nils Christiansen from the Hereon Institute for Coastal Systems - Analysis and Modeling. The Hamburg Science Foundation has rated his work as outstanding and awarded the 31-year-old geophysicist the Kurt Hartwig Siemers Award. "Nils Christiansen uses simulations and model calculations to analyze the effects of renewable energy generation in the German Bight. His results provide orientation for the sustainable expansion of this energy reservoir," says Ekkehard Nümann, President of the Foundation.
Wind turbines change ocean currents
„Our modeling shows changes in the physical processes of the sea and suggests possible ecological consequences - both negative and positive,” explains Christiansen. In his doctoral thesis, which he wrote at Hereon and the University of Hamburg, he discovered that wind turbines create resistance in the atmosphere and underwater, thereby affecting ocean currents. On one hand, the resistance of the rotor reduces the wind speed behind the wind turbine and the influence of the wind on the sea surface decreases. On the other hand, turbulence is created in the water at the pillars, which strongly mix the local water layers. These two effects change current speeds and the density distribution at the wind parks and beyond their boundaries.
Following his doctoral thesis, Christiansen worked at Hereon on the question of the impact of offshore hydrogen production in the North Sea. This does not yet take place in reality; technologies are currently being tested. The German government has designated areas for this in the German Bight. In the production of hydrogen, the seawater is desalinated. This produces brine and heat at higher temperatures. Using modern technologies, both are led back into the sea. This input increases both the salt concentration and the temperature of the water within a radius of several hundred meters around the platform. Local temperature fluctuations of more than 2 degrees Celsius can occur. "This can have a significant impact on the local ecosystem," says Christiansen.
His research results also include possible solutions for reducing the footprint of offshore wind energy and hydrogen production through technological adjustments. "For example, it has been shown that the depth at which brine and heat are absorbed is crucial for their dispersion and dilution, while greater turbine spacing could reduce the effects of wind farms."
Being honored with the Kurt Hartwig Siemers Award is a special achievement for Christiansen. "It gives us the opportunity to bring our research to the public. In this way, we can create an understanding of the ecological footprint that offshore energy production in the North Sea could leave behind." He hopes that the results will be taken into account in the construction of new offshore parks for wind power and hydrogen production.
Dr Nils Christiansen
Scientist
Institute of Coastal Systems - Analysis and Modeling
Mail: nils.christiansen@hereon.de
http://Institute of Coastal Systems - Analysis and Modeling
https://hereon.de/institutes/coastal_systems_analysis_modeling/index.php.en
Nils Christiansen at the award ceremony with the Scientific Director of Hereon Regine Willumeit-Röme ...
Hereon/Sabine Billerbeck
Hereon/Sabine Billerbeck
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