De Rijke Noordzee: new user on North Sea Innovation Lab
2020-05-06
Our North Sea Innovation Lab welcomes a new user: De Rijke Noordzee! De Rijke Noordzee aims to restore nature in offshore wind farms. By testing their prototypes at various locations, one of which is our North Sea Innovation lab, they are able to build and improve their nature restoration solutions. We are very excited about this collaboration, since nature restoration in wind farms is an important factor in nature-inclusive multi-use sea farms.
De Rijke Noordzee project is developing living reefs that are designed to strengthen biodiversity in the wind farm areas in between offshore wind turbines. Historically, 20% of the North Sea seabed was covered with natural reefs, like oyster beds. However, due to human activities, this coverage has all but completely disappeared. This project aims to restore these natural reefs and help strengthen the sea. The wind farms at sea, that will be built in the coming years, are a great opportunity to start nature restoration.
Nature restoration is an example of multi-use in an offshore wind farm. This is exactly why we are so excited to work together with De Rijke Noordzee. Just like the other test sites, our offshore lab can facilitate De Rijke Noordzee in finding solutions and help achieving nature restoration of the seabed in wind farms. If all goes well, we are yet another step closer in achieving the optimal multi-use sea farm that is a synergy of nature, food and energy production. For now, the collaboration is signed for four years, but who knows? Maybe together we can cultivate some seaweed at one of the other test locations and continue to move towards multi-use sea farms in the future!
For more info on the project: check www.derijkenoordzee.nl
Image: Oscar Bos
