Princess Elisabeth Island
The project
The Princess Elisabeth Island, located off Belgium’s North Sea coast, will be the world’s first energy island.
We have adopted an innovative approach to the Princess Elisabeth Island, known as ‘nature-inclusive design’. We have been working with nature conservation experts and scientists to ensure that the way the island is designed has a positive impact on biodiversity and helps marine life to flourish. This means that both the island’s design and its function will be contributing to meeting the EU’s climate and biodiversity targets.
We led a co-creation process with our staff and nature conservation and marine environment experts, universities, consultancies and non-governmental organisations to design a unique set of nature-inclusive design measures that will enhance biodiversity and help marine fauna and flora to flourish around the island.
The NID4BirdLIFE project is a 6.5-year initiative co-financed by the LIFE Programme, the European Union’s funding instrument for environment and climate action. The project aims to address the critical decline of the black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) population by creating a durable breeding stronghold on the Princess Elisabeth Energy Island. This will be achieved through the integration of Nature-Inclusive Design (NID) elements into the island’s wave walls.
Project location
Contribution(s)
Project costs
Participant(s)
- Elia Group
- Nature conservation and marine environment experts, universities, consultancies and non-governmental organisations
- TM Edison, the contractor that designs and constructs the energy-island
How are the criteria of the objective met?
Primary production areas
- Develop the project by incorporating biodiversity and provide an area dedicated to biodiversity (e.g. breeding ledges for kittiwake, measures to create a diverse and heterogenous seafloor around the island, reef panels);
- Have respect for and/or improve the environmental and ecological characteristics of the area;
- As much naturalness as possible/as little alteration as possible of the surrounding environment (preservation of gravel beds): several measures have been incorporated into the project to mitigate the impact on hydrodynamics and on sensitive and valuable gravel areas in the surroundings.
Possible initiatives in which the project is involved :
Long-term maintenance
Zero management, which means letting nature develop on its own without human intervention.
Benefits
- Encouragement of a rich ecosystem to thrive around the island, thanks to its nature-inclusive design
- The island will give Belgium access to offshore wind energy produced by wind farms in the Princess Elisabeth Zone: around 60 km of DC cables and 300 km of AC cables will be installed around it, bringing electricity back to the mainland.
- Moreover, given that it will serve as a landing point for interconnectors with other countries, it will allow Belgium to trade renewable energy with its neighbors and so enhance Europe’s interconnectedness.
Other projects linked to the objective: "Primary production areas"
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