Oyster reef restoration near wind farms feasible, German energy company RWE says

German offshore wind company RWE and the Oyster Restoration Company (TORC) based in the UK have completed a feasibility project to determine whether large-scale native oyster reef restoration can be executed at offshore wind farms in the North Sea.

RWE and TORC said the six-month study proved that such restoration can be done. Throughout the feasibility testing, both parties jointly developed a series of technical assessment, evaluations and solutions from engineering and deployment to verification frameworks.

RWE said that, due to the harmful impacts of factors such as overfishing, pollution and parasites, only five per cent of the pre-industrial flat oyster population remains across the North Sea.

The project is a research initiative, which is supported by RWE and carried out at TORC’s hatchery in Scotland. Through laboratory tests, the project evaluated different natural and artificial hard substrates, such as shells or bricks, and to decide which could be deployed to maximise the creation of new reefs.

"The question is no longer if we can restore oysters at scale offshore" said Dr Nik Sachlikidis, CEO of TORC. "Together with RWE, we've combined hatchery capacity, engineering know-how, and science to deliver a pathway for measurable biodiversity gain."

RWE expects that the learnings from this project will support the ambitions of offshore wind companies to contribute to the restoration of marine habitats across wide areas of the North Sea in the UK and Europe.