Plan­ning Off­shore Wind Ener­gy and Secur­ing Marine Ecosys­tems in the North Sea

North Sea Foundation

NSF aim to cre­ate a plat­form that stim­u­lates tech­ni­cal inno­va­tion and pro­vides eco­log­i­cal edu­ca­tion on the cumu­la­tive eco­log­i­cal effects of the roll out of wind farms in the North­ern Seas — through exchange of knowl­edge and good prac­tices which remove, reduce, and com­pen­sate those cumu­la­tive effects, such as mul­ti-use tech­nolo­gies and nature-inclu­sive designs for off­shore ener­gy infra­struc­ture. The North Sea is one of the busiest seas in the world and has not yet reached good envi­ron­men­tal sta­tus under the Euro­pean Marine Strat­e­gy Frame­work Direc­tive. The nec­es­sary rapid off­shore ener­gy tran­si­tion takes place in a sys­tem with envi­ron­men­tal con­straints — if not prop­er­ly addressed, these con­straints can dra­mat­i­cal­ly slow down off­shore ener­gy expan­sion, increase costs and dis­rupt decar­bon­i­sa­tion path­ways. The project will advo­cate for off­shore wind devel­op­ment, while pro­tect­ing the marine envi­ron­ment – by devel­op­ing a Best Prac­tice Exchange Cen­tre for off­shore wind ener­gy infra­struc­ture, and ensur­ing reg­u­lar dia­logue between wind devel­op­ers, sup­pli­ers, trans­mis­sions sys­tem oper­a­tors and Euro­pean envi­ron­men­tal NGOs, active in the North­ern Seas.

For more information visit: https://www.noordzee.nl/