Projects

BluERA aims to improve the understanding of how a number of different technologies for ocean energy react to the variability of the energy source. Moreover, the project will provide important data for risk assessments that will help promotors and investors select potential technologies.

In the first wind farm on Thornton bank, 30 km off the Belgian coast, C-Power (photo) installed, among other things, 6 wind turbines on gravity-based foundations (GBF). The project aims to develop an inspection & monitoring strategy for GBF structures in order to control maintenance costs and potentially extend the service life of these structures.

The PERSUADE project aims to investigate how a combination of local activities can influence the coastal ecosystem in an environment that is also subject to the consequences of global climate change. The main focus is on energy generation in offshore wind farms combined with aquaculture.

Soft coastal protection measures such as dune, beach or foreshore replenishments present specific challenges in terms of design and maintenance for governments, engineering firms, dredgers and the insurance industry.

The aim of the SSAVE project is to improve the quality of the data, the interconnectivity and the interoperability in maritime shipping and inland navigation. Safe and verified direct and indirect communication between assets will be created to this effect. The data exchanged will be expanded with additional sensor information to efficiently display and communicate situational awareness.

The aim of this pilot project is the remote control of an estuary vessel between the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge. This is done with a reduced crew on board and a captain in a control centre on land.

Aquaculture is often put forward as a solution to meet the growing demand for healthy products from the sea. But is large-scale aquaculture feasible in the Belgian part of the North Sea? The MARCOS project explores three possible scenarios in this regard in detail.

This project will develop a toolbox for the assessment and integration of social and spatial risks of multifunctional marine infrastructure. This toolbox can be deployed during a co-creation process and includes a generic set of building blocks and their degrees of freedom. It integrates hard and soft functionality in a quantitative and objective manner in order to maximise the success rate of complex marine infrastructure projects.

Inn2POWER aims to support SMEs in the North Sea area in setting up innovative partnerships in the maintenance and monitoring of offshore wind farms. Through Inn2POWER, Flemish suppliers will have easier access to a stronger framework for international cooperation in the North Sea area and to international testing facilities.

Although desalination technology has already been globally adopted, there are still some challenges to make this way of fresh water production more sustainable and scale it up further. The high energy consumption and discharge of concentrated saline streams require innovative solutions, which can be found in the use of renewable energy sources, production of hydrogen and alternative raw materials for the industry, respectively.

The market for offshore, multi-use structures, such as man-made islands, is large. In Belgium, man-made islands are considered an element for coastal protection against the rise in sea levels. Making these coastal protection islands multifunctional could make a significant contribution to their financial affordability.

North Sea Aquaculture addresses three challenges: innovative cultivation techniques of shellfish and seaweeds, efficient use of space of the Belgian North Sea and development of a market for new local marine products (photo © Gust Lesage, DEME Group).