A typical wind development using fixed bottom foundations consists of wind turbine generators, associated foundations, offshore substations and associated foundations, inter-array cables linking each turbine to the substation and export cables which bring the power to an onshore substation.  Construction of a typical wind farm requires hundreds of kilometers of electrical cabling and thousands of tons of steel, rock and concrete.

Sites are prepared by clearing the natural seafloor. Turbines (up to 320m height above sea level) are then erected by embedding them deeply into the seabed. Various techniques may be used to drive these huge structures to depths that will ensure their stability, but irrespective of the technique used, none of the original seafloor integrity is likely to survive this operation. Similarly, a range of techniques can be used to embed and anchor the high voltage electrical cables into the seabed. Routes can be prepared by dredging, ploughing or trenching to some depth, then cables laid, sometimes on concrete ‘matressing’, and covered with concrete or rock that can be up to 5 metres wide. If cables are laid on sandbanks, prior to the cables being laid, 3-6 meters of the surface sand must be removed to create an appropriate base for the construction. This is the living layer of the ecosystem in which the sand eels live, so cable laying on sandy surfaces, effectively totally removes the functioning part of that important ecosystem.