Posters

Abstract

Given that Belgian only has limited offshore space with many activities, it is essential to make the most of the North Sea's electricity production areas. Therefore an artificial island is being constructed 45 km off the Belgian coast in the North Sea. It will serve as an electricity hub that will bundle together the cables from the wind turbines in Belgium's second offshore wind zone, ánd provisions will be made for new interconnections with other European countries, for example, the UK (the Nautilus project) and Denmark (the Triton Link project). Export cables will then bring the generated electricity to shore in Belgium. In the Belgian Marine Spatial Plan, the Princess Elisabeth zone for the production of renewable energy partly overlaps with Natura 2000 area and also the Princess Elisabeth Island is located in the vicinity of this Habitat directive area with sensitive gravel beds. In order to receive an environmental permit and authorization to construct the island, IMDC was appointed by the transmission operator ELIA to write the Environmental Impact Report (EIR). As the main potential impact was the creation of sediment plumes during the construction phase of the island with the risk to settle on the nearby gravel beds, numerical morphodynamic and sediment plume modelling was performed. Additionally a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of the artificial island and export cables including the production of the materials, transport, all activities during construction phase, operational phase and decommissioning was conducted. An island build up of concrete caissons filled with sand across an area of 6 hectares was considered. Apart from an EIR, also a indicative Appropriate Assessment was performed, assessing the impact of the project on the conservation objectives of the habitat directive area 'Vlaamse Banken', as well as the conservation objectives of seabirds and sea mammals.