Systematic review maps sustainability tensions in offshore wind development

Offshore wind energy is widely recognised as a key contributor to the green energy transition and sustainable development, yet a new systematic literature review finds that the rapid expansion of the sector may be generating conflicts among the very goals it is meant to serve. The review, published in the journal Energy, Sustainability and Society, focuses on identifying the sustainability-related tensions, dilemmas and paradoxes emerging from the transition to offshore wind energy and the scaling up of its installations, while also synthesising the sustainability concepts used in offshore wind energy studies.

The research arrives at a moment when offshore wind development is accelerating across the globe, with plans for larger offshore wind farms moving from drawing boards to permitting processes. According to the review, this acceleration is prompting concerns about how to balance development and sustainability goals. The authors report that the results of the study show the development of offshore wind energy may spark tensions between economic, environmental and social demands, the three pillars that sustainability frameworks typically seek to reconcile.

Beyond these familiar three-way conflicts, the review points to a deeper conceptual problem. The authors find that the flexibility in defining sustainability and the inherent paradox within the concept of sustainable development may also intensify the competition between different sustainability demands. In other words, the very language used to justify offshore wind expansion may contribute to the friction it is supposed to resolve, because different actors can interpret sustainability in ways that serve their own priorities.

The study is presented as a systematic literature review, a method that involves structured identification and synthesis of published research rather than new field measurements or modelling. This design allows the authors to map how sustainability concepts appear across the existing offshore wind literature and to catalogue the tensions, dilemmas and paradoxes that researchers have documented as the industry scales up. The review’s conclusions are therefore statements about the published research landscape, not direct measurements of specific wind farms or coastlines.

By synthesising this body of work, the authors contribute to what they describe as a growing field of research on sustainability in renewable energy development settings. Their stated contribution is to emphasise the necessity of adopting holistic, interdisciplinary approaches and alternative frameworks that transcend existing paradigms in order to advance sustainability research concerning offshore wind power development. This suggests that conventional analytical tools, which often treat economic, environmental and social dimensions as separable categories, may be insufficient for capturing the dilemmas that arise when large offshore installations compete for space, resources and public acceptance.

The timing of the review is significant for the energy sector. As governments and developers pursue larger offshore wind farms to meet climate targets, the findings indicate that planning processes should expect competing sustainability demands rather than assume automatic alignment between decarbonisation and local outcomes. The review does not report quantitative estimates of these tensions, nor does it evaluate specific projects; instead, it establishes that the scholarly literature itself records recurring conflicts as installations multiply and grow in scale.

For researchers, the review’s synthesis of sustainability concepts offers a reference point for future studies. The authors argue that advancing sustainability research on offshore wind power will require frameworks that go beyond existing paradigms, implying that the field may need new theoretical and methodological tools to handle the paradoxes embedded in the sustainable development concept itself. The article is published open access, making the full synthesis available to practitioners, regulators and communities involved in offshore wind planning.

The publication carries the caveat typical of early-release articles: the version shared provides faster access to peer-reviewed, accepted research, is citable and carries a permanent DOI, but remains subject to further edits before the final Version of Record replaces it. Readers should therefore treat the findings as accepted but not yet in final typeset form.

Overall, the review reframes offshore wind expansion not as an unqualified sustainability success story but as a development setting in which economic, environmental and social demands can pull in different directions. As plans for larger offshore wind farms advance worldwide, the study suggests that recognising and analysing these tensions, dilemmas and paradoxes is a necessary step toward reconciling the green energy transition with the broader goals of sustainable development.

Subject of Research: A systematic review of sustainability concepts and the tensions, dilemmas and paradoxes arising from offshore wind energy development and its scaling up.

Article Title: Sustainability in offshore wind development: a systematic review of sustainability concepts and development tensions

Article References: Portela de Carvalho, T., Hellström, M., & Tynkkynen, N. (2026). Sustainability in offshore wind development: a systematic review of sustainability concepts and development tensions. Energy, Sustainability and Society, 16(1), Article 53. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13705-026-00594-8

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s13705-026-00594-8

Keywords: offshore wind, sustainability, systematic review, green energy transition, renewable energy, development tensions, sustainable development, energy policy, interdisciplinary research, Energy Sustainability and Society, offshore, wind