Events
Achieving offshore wind and biodiversity targets: opportunities and lessons learned in Europe’s seas
Feb 14, 2024
Mar 21, 2024 from 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM
— Bilbao Exhibition Centre, Atrium 1 - located between Hall 1 and 3,
This workshop took place at WindEurope's Annual Event in Bilbao and brought together the perspectives of wind developers, transmission system operators, and NGOs to discuss the complexities and key components of nature-friendly offshore wind and grid development. Drawing lessons learned from the North and Baltic Seas, the event focused on the challenges and opportunities for the Mediterranean Sea basin.
Regulatory Landscapes Webinar: Accelerating offshore wind and nature protection in the Netherlands
Feb 08, 2024
Feb 22, 2024 from 03:00 PM to 04:00 PM
— Online,
RGI and OCEaN kicked off a new webinar series to understand the varied regulatory approaches of EU countries as they strive to accelerate offshore wind alongside nature protection. Our first webinar shone a spotlight on the Netherlands! We heard from Dutch experts as they outlined the key policies and regulations that need to be considered in offshore wind and grid deployment and the protection of marine ecosystems.
Webinar: Subsea Grids Supporting Marine Biodiversity - Improving Undersea Resiliency with Nature Materials
Oct 09, 2023
Oct 26, 2023 from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
— Online,
Biorock, sea-concrete, sustainable concrete – a fascinating concept with many different names and applications. For the third edition of our Nature Inclusive Design (NID) webinar series with RGI, we explored these natural, environmentally-sourced construction materials as a new solution in the context of offshore electricity grid infrastructure. The highlight of this online discussion was presentations from Red Eléctrica, the Spanish transmission system operator, and ECOncrete on their innovative collaboration on ecological cable protection in the subsea trench between the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura in Spain.
Online Launch: the Offshore Coalition for Energy & Nature – Mediterranean Sea
Sep 13, 2023
Sep 28, 2023 from 02:30 PM to 03:30 PM
— Zoom Webinar,
Join us for the online launch event of the Offshore Coalition for Energy & Nature – Mediterranean Sea, where we will hear from Med OCEaN Members and relevant European and regional institutions and gain an understanding of the necessity to simultaneously accelerate offshore wind energy and protect nature in this biodiversity hotspot.
Workshop: How to plan and deploy nature friendly offshore wind
Mar 22, 2023
May 25, 2023 from 12:15 PM to 01:30 PM
— Brest, France,
On 25 May, the Renewables Grid Initiative and Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO/BirdLife International France) co-hosted a workshop at the European Maritime Day in Brest, France. In the workshop, RGI led a discussion between key stakeholders on how offshore wind can be sited and deployed in a nature-friendly way, from the implementation of ecosystem-based Maritime Spatial Plans to the application of sensitivity maps and the design of wind infrastructure.
Workshop: How to integrate nature into offshore wind and grid infrastructure - a spotlight on offshore auctioning
Mar 22, 2023
Apr 26, 2023 from 12:30 PM to 03:30 PM
— Bella Center, Center Boulevard 5, DK-2300, Copenhagen Denmark,
On 26 April, the Renewables Grid Initiative, WindEurope, and Members of the Offshore Coalition for Energy and Nature hosted an invitation-only workshop on the design of offshore auctions and the relevance of integrating sustainability and biodiversity measures as part of the selection criteria to award offshore wind projects. This workshop was one of the many OCEaN activities which took place at WindEurope's Annual Event in Copenhagen from 25-27 April.
Webinar: Enhancing marine life around the subsea electricity grids in the Dutch North Sea
Jan 09, 2023
Jan 26, 2023 from 03:00 PM to 04:30 PM
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.
Webinar: Belgian Energy Island – Collective Early Planning for a Nature Positive Contribution in Offshore Electricity Infrastructure
Oct 25, 2022
Nov 29, 2022 from 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM
— Online,
OCEaN and RGI's first webinar in the Nature Inclusive Design series featured speakers from the Belgian TSO, Elia. Elia has teamed up with a group of external stakeholders from different sectors to identify fit-for-purpose NID measures, with the aim to apply them in its future offshore artificial Energy Island (electricity hub) in the North Sea. In this webinar, Elia experts shared the identified challenges and solutions of this collaborative process.
RGI-WindEurope-OCEaN Conference: Speeding up Nature Positive Offshore Energy Infrastructure Deployment
Oct 19, 2022
Oct 19, 2022 from 09:30 AM to 05:00 PM
— KVS – Arduinkaai 7 Quai aux Pierres de Taille, Brussels, Belgium,
On 19 October, the Renewables Grid Initiative (RGI), WindEurope and the Offshore Coalition for Energy and Nature (OCEaN) co-organised a conference in Brussels discussing challenges and possible solutions to accelerate offshore energy infrastructure deployment while also restoring Europe’s marine ecosystems.
Webinar - Powering Healthy Seas: Accelerating Nature Positive Offshore Wind
Sep 13, 2022
Sep 29, 2022 from 02:30 PM to 04:00 PM
— Online,
Too often a forgotten wilderness, our seas are in fact a powerhouse for economic activity. The North Sea in particularly has been a hub for much of this activity, but this basin, once plentiful in wildlife and extensive reef habitats, is now a shadow of its former self. Join RGI, OCEaN and RSPB as they explore recommendations from RSPB's recent report 'Powering Healthy Seas: Accelerating Nature Positive Offshore Wind'. The report compiles suggestions from conservation groups and industry representatives on accelerating offshore wind in our seas, vital to decarbonise our energy systems, whilst minimising the impacts on nature. Nature Positive offshore wind can be the catalyst for change and for vibrant and healthy seas.
Webinar: Clarifying key environmental concepts for an ecologically-sound deployment of offshore wind in Europe
Jun 20, 2022
Jun 28, 2022 from 02:30 PM to 04:00 PM
— Online,
This webinar is based on the conclusions of the discussion paper on 'Essential Environmental Concepts for the Offshore Wind Energy Sector in Europe' published by the RGI with contributions from OCEaN
Webinar: 'Overriding Public Interest’ to speed up permitting procedures for RES and grids?
May 02, 2022
May 12, 2022 from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
— Berlin,
This RGI webinar presents a legal perspective of the framework that defines Imperative Reasons of Overriding Public Interest (IROPI) and its application: What exactly does IROPI mean? What are the reasons that competent authorities can invoke it? How is the concept considered in current nature directives and which consequences could it have for nature protection? How has it been applied in the past – with which outcomes?
OCEaN workshop on multi-use in Marine Spatial Planning: Sharing experiences, opportunities, and limitations
Nov 17, 2021
Nov 24, 2021 from 10:30 AM to 01:30 PM
— Copenhagen,
On the 24th of November 2021, the Offshore Coalition for Energy and Nature (OCEaN) held a workshop on the topic of multi-use as a side event at the Electric City event organised by WindEurope. The workshop aimed to present the policy frameworks related to multi-use within the European Union. It also provided an overview of different multi-use projects that have been implemented as pilot projects across different Member States. The workshop was attended by approximately 20 participants which contributed to the discussions with different questions covering aspects related to policy, data, EU role, and feasibility. At the workshop, the MSP Messages developed by OCEaN were also distributed as flyers with the aim to disseminate the messages.