Energies Media
A sampling frame was pressed against the bottom of a solar floater in the Dutch North Sea. The platforms above floated on the water like a soft blanket.
Typically, solar equipment is not found in the marine habitat, particularly away from the coast. However, the organisms that had been submerged were crowded by other organisms that were not planted by the engineers.
Now, a new study has been published that names the community that formed there. What was happening to this man-made surface and what did its arrival signify?
The offshore test site is located approximately 7.5 miles off the coast of The Hague. The depths of water there are from about 39 to 66 feet.
Oceans of Energy was the floating system in operation with researchers conducting environmental studies from 2021 to 2025.
The wider project monitored currents, water quality, food web, birds, marine mammals and organisms that attach under the platforms.
Divers took samples of the installation in September 2023 for the biofouling study. All the tested floaters had been released in January or June of the same year.
That timing matters. Although the solar project had been tested for years in the rough seas, the sampled surfaces were still relatively new.
Rigid plastic floaters with panels above the waves were used for the installation. The structure can be flexible, allowing it to rise and fall, like a blanket.
The gaps let light in and allowed splashing water to naturally clean the panels.
No antifouling treatment eliminated settlers below that moving surface.
The divers collected measured lengths from 18 floaters from three clusters, and preserved all the floaters for identification in the lab.
The samples demonstrated the speed at which an energy structure can turn into biological space.
Forty-seven taxa were identified on the floaters. Not new species, but known organisms utilizing a new offshore surface.
Native animals and 12 non-indigenous taxa were included. That mixture is important because man-made structures can link areas that had once been separated by open water.
The four year environmental program did not detect any measurable changes in currents or water mixing in the vicinity of this small installation.
Those conditions were within natural variation caused by waves and tides.
There was no evidence of a significant decline in primary production at this scale either. But attached animals may still have discrete local effects.
Mussels remove algae from water. In nutrient-rich conditions, that process may make nearby water clearer.
Under nutrient-poor conditions, the same type of filtering can decrease available food elsewhere.
Cameras provided a broader perspective. The platforms were sometimes used by gulls and seals to rest, particularly in quieter weather.
But the most detailed surprise was still underneath, where the more numerous were the smaller animals, and the more massive were the shellfish.
The 47 taxa were not a single continuous coating, but rather a layering of fouling, according to Wageningen University & Research.
The most abundant group was the arthropods. The majority were from the genus Jassa, a small group of amphipods that aggregate on offshore structures.
The mollusks provided the most biomass, primarily as blue mussels.
They were much heavier than the many smaller crustaceans that surrounded them, because of their shells.
Other small fouling organisms and barnacles also attached to the underwater surfaces.
These animals shared hard material that the surrounding seascapes were largely devoid of.
The floaters had attachment points above the sea bed.
Larvae and other floating or drifting forms were transported by currents to these surfaces and successful settlers grew and fed on these surfaces.
No significant difference in abundance or biomass was found between floaters set in January and June.
Colonization was progressing well even on newer units.
The count does not indicate that offshore solar necessarily benefits marine ecosystems.
A larger proportion of non-indigenous organisms were present, but a smaller proportion of biomass.
The structures can support biodiversity and facilitate dispersal for some species.
They call that possibility a stepping-stone effect. Hard material structures (artificial islands) can reduce intergenerational habitat fragmentation.
Scale also changes the calculation.
The trial solar farm was small; future projects could span larger areas or coexist with wind farms.
Larger systems may have different impacts on light, currents, food availability, and movement of species.
The study is not a final ecological judgment, but an initial inventory.
Long-term monitoring should determine if these communities are stable or alter adjacent food webs.
The divers went down to check on an energy machine but came back with a list of marine life.
Amphipods were densely packed under the panels and blue mussels accounted for the bulk of the living weight. The sea did not provide such surface before and was filled with barnacles and other settlers.
That picture does not make offshore solar seem like equipment alone. All new structures are part of the environment.
The challenge is to ensure that this moving habitat is adequate to support marine life without inadvertently transporting unwanted species further across the North Sea.
Daniel García is an Editor-in-Chief with strong expertise in structural work and engineering principles. He combines this technical foundation with deep knowledge of energy, spatial design, and emerging technologies, bringing a forward-thinking and analytical approach to editorial leadership.
Daniel García is an Editor-in-Chief with strong expertise in structural work and engineering principles. He combines this technical foundation with deep knowledge of energy, spatial design, and emerging technologies, bringing a forward-thinking and analytical approach to editorial leadership.
Daniel García is an Editor-in-Chief with strong expertise in structural work and engineering principles. He combines this technical foundation with deep knowledge of energy, spatial design, and emerging technologies, bringing a forward-thinking and analytical approach to editorial leadership.

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