Partnering with WREN, questionnaires are sent to offshore wind energy developers around the world who are involved in environmental monitoring. This page provides contextual project information and highlights environmental monitoring, providing links to available data and reports. Content is updated annually.

Nobelwind

Description

Nobelwind is Parkwind’s third offshore wind energy project and the fourth offshore wind project in Belgium. Its 50 turbines over 19.8 square kilometres power approximately 190,000 households and reduce approximately 268,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.  

In 2024, Parkwind installed a (temporary) pioneering boat charging station system at the Nobelwind farm, enabling vessels to use green, locally generated energy directly. The technology, developed by UK-based partner MJR, allows ships to connect to the charging cable and stay in place, despite sea currents. 

Location

Nobelwind is located 47 km from shore in the Belgian North Sea on the Bligh Bank. It lies directly south of the Northwester 2 wind farm and to the north of the Seastar wind farm. The farm’s submarine electrical export cable is connected to the nearby Northwind offshore wind farm, from where it has a shared connection to shore. The export cable makes landfall at Zeebruggee.

Project Timeline

  • 2024: World-first Offshore Green Energy Charging Demonstrated 
  • December 2017: Fully Commissioned 
  • May 2017: Full Production 
  • January 2017: First Produced Energy 
  • 2016: Grid Connection Available 
  • 2016: First Turbine Installed 
  • April 2016: Construction Start 
  • October 2015: Financial Close 
  • 2014: Grid Connection Available (2nd part Bligh Bank Concession) 

Licensing Information

In 2015, Nobelwind underwent a series of regulatory transfers from Belwind, involving multiple Belgian governmental authorities. Between April and October, the project received partial transfers of Environmental Permits from the Minister responsible for the marine environment on two separate occasions (May 13 and October 7), as well as a partial transfer of the Domain Concession from the State Secretary for Energy on September 11, effectively transitioning key project permissions and regulatory approvals.

Key Environmental Issues

The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences’ Scientific Service Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Models (MUMM) program coordinated all the foreseen standard environmental monitoring activities in the field. In collaboration with scientific organizations, some dedicated programs were also started in 2017 and further executed by the MUMM whereby Nobelwind cooperates where relevant (e.g., fish track sampling).

Metadata Documents

Environmental Papers and Reports

Environmental Monitoring: Nobelwind

Phase Stressor & Receptor Design and Methods Results Publications Data
Operations Displacement

Fish 		Fish Track Sampling Campaign
Annual boat-based fish sampling surveys carried out in Nobelwind project area starting in Autumn 2017. Established mitigation measures used throughout surveys. 		Ongoing
Reports give an overview of the main activities and relevant parameters of the Nobelwind offshore windfarm over specific periods. 		Nobelwind Offshore Energy 2018, Nobelwind Offshore Energy 2020, Nobelwind Offshore Energy 2021, Nobelwind Offshore Energy 2022, Nobelwind Offshore Energy 2023 No data publicly available.
Construction Noise

Fish 		Fish surveys
To examine the impact of pile driving on Atlantic cod, a field experiment was undertaken during construction of the Nobelwind wind farm. To expose cod, large netted cages were submerged at an average depth between 7 and 14 m. Necropsy was started 2-3 hours after retrieval of the fish from the cages. Sound pressure was measured using two hydrophones; recordings were performed at two occasions. 		Complete
Pile driving for offshore wind farm construction causes ruptured swim bladders and internal bleeding in age I-group cod. However, these internal injuries decreased rapidly with increasing distance from the pile driving source. 		Degraer et al. 2017 No data publicly available.
Construction Noise

Marine Mammals 		Acoustic Monitoring
From May to September 2016, pile driving was taking place at the Nobelwind wind farm. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) of porpoises was conducted using the Continuous Porpoise Detector (C-PoD). 		Complete
The interannual variability and seasonal  patterns in harbour porpoise densities in the Southern North Sea made it difficult to interpret changes in porpoise detections throughout the piling period. There was no clear relation between detection rate and piling at the stations. 		Degraer et al. 2017 No data publicly available.
Construction Noise

Marine Mammals 		Acoustic Monitoring
At Nobelwind, pile driving without the use of noise mitigation measures took place in 2016. This study used data from Continuous Porpoise Detectors deployed at 27 locations from 2016 to 2019 in the Belgian Part of the North Sea (including the Nobelwind area). 		Complete
In 2016, at relatively short distances to the pile, mean detection rates were 63% and 53% lower during acoustic disturbance and immediately after respectively, compared to a baseline of 48-96 hours after pile driving. With increasingly higher distances from pile driving these differences became smaller. In 2019, at relatively short distances to the pile, mean detection rates during pile driving decreased less during the acoustic disturbance (11% and 31% respectively) compared to the Recovery phase. 		Degraer et al. 2021, Degraer et al. 2022 No data publicly available.