Companies and organisations including Orsted, Van Oord and TenneT have pledged to support the natural habitat in the North Sea.
The trio, as well as Eneco, Blauwwind, Nature & Environment and De Noordzee Foundation, have signed up to a Dutch initiative called The Rich North Sea Covenant or De Rijke Noordzee.
By signing the covenant the parties share the common goal of supplying sustainable energy from a healthy North Sea, rich with nature and full of life.
Wind farms in the North Sea will be used as nurseries for underwater nature.
The signatories support the programme by setting up nature enhancement projects, installing artificial reefs, making ships available or conducting or enabling scientific research.
The Rich North Sea initiative aims to connect two major challenges: ensuring sustainable energy and enhancing underwater biodiversity.
It will implement nature projects in existing and yet to be built wind farms in the coming years, for example with flat oysters, cold-water coral, blue mussels and sandpit worms.
De Rijke Noordzee director Erwin Coolen said: “A strong collaboration between the wind sector and nature organizations. Innovation on the seabed in wind farms with the ultimate goal of a healthy North Sea.”
The Rich North Sea is supported with a contribution of €8.5m from the Dream Fund of the Netherlands’s National Postcode Lottery.