Pioneering Open Data & Strengthening Competitiveness – Ecowende

Background

Ecowende is a joint venture between Shell, Eneco, and Chubu, aiming to set a new ecological standard for wind farms. Their wind farm on Hollandse Kust West (HKW) lot VI, located 53 kilometers off the Dutch coast, is expected to be fully operational by end 2026 with a strong respect for nature Ecowende plans on using innovative features like bird corridors and extended hub heights to mitigate negative impact on birds, , and noise mitigation systems designed to minimize disturbances to marine life and stimulate positive impact to fish and benthic communities with biodegradable tree reefs and additional holes in the monopiles for fish. The goal is for future wind farms to be designed to have a “net positive impact” on the environment.

Use Case Overview– Ecowende and HUB Ocean as partners

In the Netherlands, tender criteria to build offshore wind farms include data and knowledge sharing to contribute to industry advancement. Ecowende's commitment to extensive data sharing goes beyond these minimum requirements. By focusing on ecological enhancements with a strong focus on data sharing and transparency, Ecowende gained a competitive edge, helping them secure the tender for HKW lot VI.

Types of Data Shared

The data shared by Ecowende will come from numerous sensors in its offshore installations and stand-alone surveys. These sensors monitor a variety of ecological and other oceanic parameters, both above and below the water, such as:

• Bird and bat observations, species, abundance, flux

• Abiotic data

• Fish, bat and songbird telemetry data

• Acoustic data

How the data is made publicly available

Data will be made available on HUB Ocean’s Ocean Data Platform and other public repositories.

Value and Impact Creation

Ecowende is the first offshore wind developer that has committed to data sharing on this scale. It has already earned positive feedback from stakeholders, partners, and NGOs and enhanced its reputation as a responsible actor in the offshore renewable industry. Additionally, through sharing its data on the Ocean Data Platform and accessing other public data, Ecowende will be able to create new insights and fill knowledge gaps on the environmental impacts of offshore wind turbines and the effectiveness of their ecological innovations.

“The platform that HUB Ocean has built, will help Ecowende draw a picture of the data in a wider sense, creating relations between different wind farms and making data more valuable for us and others.”

Hermione van Zutphen, Ecology Program Manager, Ecowende

“The value of knowledge increases the moment you share it, because then the value multiplies.”

Douwe Visser,  IT Manager, Ecowende

At the same, Ecowende is significantly contributing to ocean understanding, especially of the species and environmental factors in the North Sea. This data will be available to expert users from science, governments, wind farm and other industries. What’s more, the data collected will be made available in a format that embraces the scientific FAIR standards (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable), which enhances transparency, research efficiency and impact from the data.

“The total amount of ocean data that will be made publicly available by Ecowende in the offshore wind sector is unprecedented. Combining their rich ecology data with other treasure troves of ocean data could amplify the impact of Ecowende’s valuable data contribution. With the Ocean Data Platform, we enable our users to do just that"

Johannes Berrum, Head of Growth, HUB Ocean.