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

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 OCEaN and the Renewables Grid Initiative launched a webinar series on Nature Inclusive Design applied in offshore energy and grid infrastructure for nature-positive outcomes. 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 2023, 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.

Webinar Recording