Ecowende

📣 Partner announcement: IUCN to provide guidance for biodiversity monitoring at Ecowende wind farm 📣 We signed a partnership agreement with IUCN (the International Union for Conservation of Nature). IUCN will establish an independent scientific advisory team to provide guidance on the implementation of best practices in terms of biodiversity monitoring. The so-called “Ecowende Biodiversity Advisory Team” will consist of scientists and experts with experience in marine ecology in the North Sea region. These scientists and experts will focus on migratory birds, bats, North Sea fish populations, marine mammals, and marine species found on the seabed (the benthic communities). Significant knowledge gaps exist in our global understanding of offshore wind’s effects on marine ecosystems, the effectiveness of certain mitigation measures, and the pursuit of net positive impact in offshore wind projects. The establishment of an independent advisory team will aid in the broader evaluation of offshore wind’s environmental impact on ecology and facilitate the dissemination of knowledge. “IUCN recognises that offshore wind needs to play a greater role if we expect to meet our climate goals under the Paris Agreement. However, the green energy transition shouldn't come at the expense of the environment. That is why IUCN is pleased to partner with Ecowende. Together we can further understand the impact that offshore wind developments have on marine ecosystems and find solutions that benefit nature,” said IUCN Deputy Director General Stewart Maginnis. Read the news article here 👉 https://lnkd.in/djUDtNX6 #teamingupwithnature #biodiversity #offshorewind #iucn #ecowende #hollandsekustwest Shell Eneco Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.

🔦 Partner in the spotlight: Proeon Systems 🔦 Proeon Systems Ltd. is responsible for the engineering design, supply, installation and integration of Ecowende's electrical control systems in the offshore high voltage substation for Hollandse Kust West. This substation connects our wind farm to TenneT TSO B.V.’s offshore grid. Proeon are delivering engineering design and manufacture of the Wind Park Operator (WPO) network, utilising the latest in secure digital technology and industrial best practices. Systems include: power distribution, metering and ecology systems, for the WPO room at the offshore high voltage substation. Proeon share Ecowendes vision for utilising innovation and sustainable development in the construction of this wind farm and future wind farms. Read more on our website 💻 https://lnkd.in/dsbhkc5i #teamingupwithnature #offshorewind #innovation #sustainabledevelopment #energytransition Shell Eneco Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. Richard Miller

💡 Innovation Insights: ecological scour protection 💡 At the Ecowende wind farm we will apply ecological scour protection on a large scale and will test various designs to determine which design provides the most optimal ecological scour protection. The scour protection has been designed by our partner Van Oord. Recently, DHI carried out a physical model test campaign of different scour protection and cable protection system stabilisation designs. It was interesting to see first-hand how some of these efforts affected the performance of the scour protection and we saw very promising results, with all the designs appearing to show good stability. Ecowende's ambition is to develop and monitor the effects of our ecological efforts to build and operate a wind farm in harmony with nature. Pauline Roos, Marine Ecologist at Ecowende: “The scour protection is a good example of how we are teaming up with nature, because we take into consideration the needs of marine life and try to cater to that in our scour protection designs. By installing and extensively monitoring various designs we hope to learn more about what works best to support the local ecosystem. I look forward to seeing these designs at sea and watching marine life colonize the rocks.” Read more about ecological scour protection and other eco-innovations on our website 🖥 : https://lnkd.in/derAecuZ 📸 Asbjørn Utoft Madsen, Irene Tönis, Joe Haley, Jelle Muller, Pauline Janssen, Robert Lengkeek, Anders Wedel Nielsen #teamingupwithnature #energytransition #offshorewind #biodiversity Shell Eneco Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.

💡 Innovation Insights: MUSE 💡 We team up with partner DHI to implement MUSE. This innovation helps ensure protection of birds and bats with maximum uptime of our wind turbines. DHI’s AI-based algorithms automatically identify the species of birds of concern and locate bats in the wind farm zone and can automatically send signals to advise on slowing down individual wind turbines if a priority species of bird is in danger of collision. Mikael Kamp Sørensen, Executive Vice President for Energy & Ports, DHI: “Ecowende will be a pioneering lighthouse for eco-innovations in offshore wind. DHI is ready to support the mission of truly integrating sustainability into the design and operation of offshore wind farms. With MUSE we can protect birds and bats from collision and still achieve the most ambitious goals for renewable energy production.” Want to know how MUSE works? Watch the animation below 👇 and for more info on DHI go to our website 💻 https://lnkd.in/dANepPrZ #teamingupwithnature #innovation #ecology #offshorewind #energytransition #hollandsekustwest Shell Eneco Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.

🔦 Partner in the spotlight: Vestas 🔦 As Ecowende’s wind turbine supplier, Vestas is responsible for the supply, delivery, and commissioning of the 52 wind turbines for the wind farm. The wind turbines have a swept area of 43,742 m2 – the size of more than five football fields – and a blade length of 115.5 metres. Vestas also supports us in delivering the technologically innovative ecological measures. This includes increasing the hub height of the wind turbines, as well as integrating bird curtailment, detection and deterrence systems into the turbine design. Read more about Vestas and other partners on our website 💻 https://lnkd.in/dEgaDbas #teamingupwithnature #windturbines #windenergy #innovations #ecology Shell Eneco Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. Nils de Baar

🔎 We teamed up with Waardenburg Ecology to study seabirds 🔍 We know from ecological research that the Great Black-backed Gull is one of 18 seabird species identified as vulnerable to collision with offshore wind farms. Eldina S., ecologist at Ecowende: “Little is known about the potential effects of operational wind farms on Great Black-backed Gull, such as collision and displacement. This is due to a lack of fundamental studies on Great Black-backed Gull spatial and foraging ecology in the North Sea.” Ecowende’s Hollandse Kust West will serve as a prime research location to assess whether the ecological impacts of future wind farms can be reduced. GPS-tracking of Great Black-backed Gulls is one of the projects that falls under the ecological research program of Ecowende. While only a few breeding pairs exist in the Netherlands, large breeding populations occur in Norway, and individuals are known to winter in the North Sea. And for this reason the team recently travelled to Norway to tag Great Black-backed Gulls with GPS devices, together with local partner BirdLife Norge. Hannah Madden, bird ecologist at Waardenburg Ecology: “We used leg-loop harnesses, which are fitted around the legs with the GPS device placed on the gull’s back. This will ensure the loggers stay charged and can send data year-round, even in the winter." Eldina adds: “We managed to successfully tag 25 Great Black-backed Gulls with the GPS loggers and now we follow online where exactly in the North Sea these seabirds will be flying. Read more 💻 https://lnkd.in/dr_hRfxH #ecowende #teamingupwithnature #birdlife #offshorewind #ecology #research Shell Eneco Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.

🐟 Teaming up with nature together 🐚 The last two years we have been working diligently on the development of our wind farm and planned ecological measures and research. We could not have done this without our partners and the Ecowende team. As we move into the construction phase it is important to look forward to how we want to (continue to) work together as one team and the critical role that HSSE, ecology and project excellence play in this. Therefore, we organised the Ecowende Pre-Summer Update (PSU) event in the beautiful dunes of Nederzandt, last Monday, to exchange ideas and discuss these key topics. Thank you for teaming up with nature with us and for joining the event: 24SEA, Buss Offshore Solutions GmbH & Co. KG, CAPE Holland, Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc., DHI, Diergaarde Blijdorp, DOB-Academy, Eagle's Flight, Eneco, Fugro, GBM Works, Jbace eventmanagement, Zeehaven IJmuiden NV / Port of IJmuiden, Proeon Systems Ltd., Robin Radar Systems, Semco Maritime, Shell, Sif Group, Smulders, TenneT TSO B.V., TKF (BV Twentsche Kabelfabriek), TÜV NORD Nederland, Van Oord, Vestas, Waardenburg Ecology, WaterProof Marine Consultancy & Services B.V., Wedge Global

💻 Join the FLORA webinar: 20 June, 10.30am CET 💻 The webinar presents up-to-date results on two public funded projects including Wedge Global's FLORA, an innovative ready-enabled floating platform, and AquaWind Project. Co-funded by the European Union, FLORA set out to build and demonstrate a first-of-a-kind platform validating the feasibility of designing multi-use platforms for remote monitoring services, especially for fisheries, aquaculture and environmental sustainability. During the webinar Jelle Muller, Project Engineer Ecology at Ecowende, will tell more about the role that FLORA plays in our monitoring and research programme for birds: "FLORA 1 generates so-called ‘T Zero’ measurements of bird migrations through the wind farm zone. T zero measurements are measurements taken prior to the construction of the wind farm. These measurement serve as a critical data baseline to evaluate the effectiveness of our various ecological innovations during the wind farm’s operational life." For the full list of speakers and to register for the webinar 👉 https://lnkd.in/ennX7zzs #floatingradar #webinar #teamingupwithnature #offshorewind #innovation Roger Espejo Shell Eneco Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.

🌊 Today is UN World Oceans Day 🐠 We don't have time for "out of sight out of mind." If the world is numb to numbers, motivating momentum will require opening minds, igniting senses, and inspiring possibilities to protect our planet’s beating heart: the ocean. Motivating momentum also means collecting and sharing ocean data. That's why we team up with non-profit organisation HUB Ocean and share our ecology data on the Ocean Data Platform. We will be the first offshore wind developer to do so and contribute to a deeper understanding of the complexities inherent in our oceans – an ocean that is overexploited and largely unmapped. “The total amount of ocean data that will be made publicly available by Ecowende in the offshore wind sector is unprecedented. Combining their rich ecology data with other treasure troves of ocean data could amplify the impact of Ecowende’s valuable data contribution. With the Ocean Data Platform, we enable our users to do just that," says Johannes Berrum from HUB Ocean. Watch the video below and read more on our website 💻 https://lnkd.in/djtMaApt #worldoceansday #unitednations #teamingupwithnature #oceandata #protecttheoceans #offshorewind Shell Eneco Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.

🔦 Partner in the spotlight: DHI 🔦 DHI plays an important part in realising our ambition by helping us monitor birds and bats within the wind farm zone and reducing the risk of collisions as much as possible. DHI’s highly advanced sensors, cameras, and artificial intelligence (AI) help protect our winged visitors, radars from Robin Radar Systems ensure that anything moving above the water surface is tracked continuously in 3D in real time. DHI uses all the collected data to identify, in collaboration with Waardenburg Ecology, the most effective measures to minimise impact on birds and bats passing through the area as much as possible. The ultimate goal is to find a way to accommodate the increasing need for offshore wind while keeping any negative impact on the existing local wildlife to an absolute minimum. #teamingupwithnature #offshorewind #energytransition #ecology #AI #birdradar #hollandsekustwest Shell Eneco Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. Mikael Kamp Sørensen