| Project Detail |
Innovative solutions for offshore renewables
The expansion of offshore renewable energy is crucial for achieving carbon neutrality, but it often conflicts with marine biodiversity preservation. Traditional infrastructure can harm marine habitats, disrupt ecosystems and pose threats to wildlife. Balancing energy needs with environmental protection is a challenge for policymakers and industry leaders. There is a need for innovative solutions that support both sustainable energy and biodiversity goals. The EU-funded NiD4OCEAN project addresses this by advancing nature-inclusive designs (NiDs) and nature-based solutions (NBS) for offshore renewables. Targeting the North Sea, Baltic Sea and Western Mediterranean, the project will develop effective, context-dependent strategies for wind and floating solar structures. Through transdisciplinary collaboration, NiD4OCEAN aims to create tools, frameworks and policies that promote biodiversity and sustainable energy.
NiD4OCEAN will advance the emerging field of nature-inclusive designs, NiDs, (and nature-based solutions, NBS, in general) for offshore renewables by providing effective, novel, context-dependent solutions to industry, managers, and policymakers. This will accelerate their implementation to support the achievement of the international and EU targets for carbon neutrality, biodiversity restoration and sustainable blue economy. Three distinct European ecoregions (North Sea, Baltic Sea, and Western Mediterranean) have been strategically selected due to their different technologies, habitats, ecosystems, and sectorial conflicts with the development of offshore renewables. An Innovation Challenge Series will be developed to promote novel NiDs and NBS for each ecoregions wind and floating solar structures (addressing issues such as design, material choice, noise, and laying cables). Each ecoregion will use a transdisciplinary approach to develop context-dependent metrics and impact assessment frameworks to evaluate the benefits and risks of selected NiDs for offshore wind. Moreover, data and monitoring requirements for evaluating the performance of NiDs will be identified to be later incorporated into recommendations towards standards. An evidence-based decision-support tool will be co-created with industry and managers to provide clarity on the selection process of NiDs in offshore wind farms. Finally, a co-created policy toolkit for the requirements of offshore wind development to comply with biodiversity protection and restoration targets will be delivered. The NiD4OCEAN consortium (involving scientists, industry, SMEs, NGOs, and the standardization community) together with the establishment of the NiD4OCEAN network, will be key to an ambitious communication and dissemination strategy designed to reach all relevant stakeholders. NiD4OCEAN strives to raise awareness across stakeholders on the need to prioritize win-win solutions for biodiversity and decarbonization. |
