Webinar

Webinar: Enhancing marine life around the subsea electricity grids in the Dutch North Sea

RGI and the Offshore Coalition for Energy and Nature's (OCEaN) second webinar in the Nature Inclusive Design series featured speakers from The Rich North Sea programme and TenneT, the transmission system operator in the Netherlands. In this webinar, they outlined recent examples of Nature Inclusive Design measures in the Netherlands’ marine space, the challenges faced, and the opportunities they foresee for offshore wind energy and grid infrastructure to enhance ecosystems.

Properly planned roll-out of offshore wind and supporting grid infrastructure can provide opportunities to sustain the protection and restoration of nature in European seas. One way to achieve this is by integrating innovative solutions such as Nature Inclusive Design (NID) alongside offshore renewable energy infrastructure. NID are measures integrated in or added to the design of infrastructure which attempt to minimise risks and increase ecological opportunities by providing direct and indirect positive effects on biodiversity.

With this in mind, in 2022 RGI and the Offshore Coalition for Energy and Nature's (OCEaN) launched a webinar series on Nature Inclusive Design applied in offshore energy and grid infrastructure for nature-positive outcomes. See previous webinars here. Our second webinar dove into recent NID measures applied in the Dutch North Sea and featured speakers from The Rich North Sea programme (a collaborative programme between The North Sea Foundation and Natuur & Milieu) and TenneT, the transmission system operator in the Netherlands.

On 26 January, Eline van Onselen (Marine ecologist at The Rich North Sea) and Annemiek Hermans (Marine ecologist at TenneT) outlined recent examples of NID measures in the Netherlands’ marine space (e.g., fish hotels and eco-scours), the challenges faced, and the opportunities they foresee for offshore wind energy and grid infrastructure to enhance ecosystems. In this 1.5-hour webinar, the speakers provided an overview of their unique experience and then opened the floor to take questions and comments from participants. See more details in the agenda below or watch recording!

Agenda

 

15:00-15:10

Welcome

  • Cristina Simioli | Programme Manager Offshore Energy and Nature, Renewables Grid Initiative
 

15:10-15:30

Presentation from The Rich North Sea: Lessons from three years in the field - nature enhancement in offshore wind farms

  • Eline van Onselen | Marine Ecologist at The Rich North Sea Programme (The North Sea Foundation and Natuur & Milieu)
 

15:30-15:50

Presentation from TenneT: Designing Nature-inclusive measures for a rapidly expanding Offshore Grid

  • Annemiek Hermans | Marine ecologist at TenneT

15:50-16:30

Q&A

  • Discussion and questions from webinar participants
 

Recording

Webinar presentations

Eline van Onselen, Marine Ecologist | The Rich North Sea Programme

 

Annemiek Hermans, Marine ecologist | TenneT

Further Links

Contact

Dení Aguilar Bellamy
Coordinator - Offshore Energy and Nature

Load more
t: +49 30 2332 11029
deni[at]renewables-grid.eu

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of the EU or LIFE Programme. Neither the EU nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

RGI gratefully acknowledges the EU LIFE funding support:

EU LIFE funding support Logo

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the LIFE Programme. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.