Expert Workshop: Integrated Offshore Planning – Aligning Energy, Nature and Space

03 July 2025

Brussels

Organised by: RGI

As Europe accelerates offshore wind deployment, new complexities are emerging in how we coordinate energy infrastructure with nature protection and sea space use. Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP), grid expansion, and biodiversity considerations often happen in parallel, but unaligned. This workshop, co-organised by WindEurope and RGI, addressed how we can bridge those silos.

Introduction

As Europe scales up offshore wind deployment, new complexities are emerging in balancing renewable energy targets with nature protection, sea space constraints, and cross-border coordination. To explore solutions addressing these complexities, RGI and WindEurope co-organised a two-day Offshore Wind and Grid Workshop on 2-3 July 2025 in Brussels, bringing together experts from across the energy, nature and planning communities.

RGI led the activities of Day 2, titled “Integrated Offshore Planning: Aligning Energy, Nature and Space”, focusing on how spatial, technical, and ecological planning can be better integrated to inform optimised offshore wind and grid development – especially at the sea-basin level.

Structured into four sessions, the day addressed governance aspects, spatial planning, wake effect trade-offs, environmental modelling and ecological aspects. The goal was to facilitate cross-sectoral dialogue that would contribute to reducing planning conflicts, accelerated permitting, and improved early-stage coordination across different actors.

“Acceleration brings complexity. But scaling up without scaling conflict requires a shared roadmap, common language, and co-created solutions.”
RGI’s Director of Offshore Energy and Nature, Cristina Simioli

Highlights from the Workshop

During the discussion, participants shared their insights into the topic, which, among others, encompassed the following key takeaways:

Integrated offshore energy and nature planning must be synchronised and embedded in spatial planning at both national and sea basin levels.

Coordinated, parallel planning must become standard: Offshore wind, grid, and nature planning must be coordinated from the start, not retrofitted at the permitting stage.

Sea-basin scale is essential: Site selection must consider cross-border wake effects, MPA and biodiversity assessments, and shared infrastructure opportunities, such as hybrid interconnectors.

Shared tools, shared governance: Energy system models, GIS maps, and biodiversity data must become interoperable across planning processes and cross-border governance is necessary to enable sea-basin level coordination.

Cross-sector dialogue bridges silos: Bringing TSOs, modelers, environmental experts and planners into the same room revealed shared needs and synergies across energy, nature and planning.

This workshop built on the foundations of the previous Modellers’ Exchange workshop and will feed into future iterations of the Offshore Network Development Plans (ONDP). Stay tuned for further updates on this topic from RGI and feel free to reach out if you are interested in learning more details!

This expert workshop was co-funded by the European Union’s LIFE operating grant. RGI’s engagement in the following interlinked initiatives and projects contributed to this expert workshop:

Horizon Europe project, JustWind4All, which explores how participatory and spatially informed planning can help accelerate just and sustainable wind deployment, contributing to considerations about Maritime Sustainable Planning;

Offshore Coalition for Energy and Nature (OCEaN), which fosters collaboration between NGOs, TSOs, and wind industry actors across the EU sea basins to accelerate the deployment of offshore wind energy and grid infrastructure while ensuring alignment with nature protection, restoration and healthy marine ecosystems;

Global Initiative for Nature, Grids and Renewables (GINGR), which works to improve outcomes for nature and communities through integrated planning of infrastructure and biodiversity.