Why did you decide to take part in the SPECIES R&D project?
The SPECIES project aimed to monitor the impact of underwater power cables on marine flora and fauna. For RTE, it was quite natural to become a partner in such a project. In addition to providing financial support through our R&D department, our role was mainly to provide feedback from our own environmental impact studies on underwater power cables, to provide data and to contribute to discussions on project objectives and protocol adaptation. In a nutshell, we played the role of an industrial stakeholder.
What interested you particularly about this project?
The results! They were essential both to improve knowledge on this subject and to optimise our future impact studies and provide answers for public consultation phases prior to new projects. But if that had been all, we could have contented ourselves with contributing only financially. In reality, it was very important for us to be truly involved in the project to give substance to the partnership dimension in which we strongly believe. As an industrial firm, we could, for instance, help the research teams to appropriately design their protocols. We were very involved in discussions on the study of magnetic fields and heat emissions, which are complex subjects that call for a particular area of expertise.
What will you take away from this project?
SPECIES was a real success, despite a few unforeseen difficulties. We obtained very relevant results that can be exploited today. With the future development of wind farms and their grid connections, further research will become essential. In this context, SPECIES paves the way with real advances in terms of methodology, both in the laboratory and in situ. We are also very satisfied with the links established with the various research teams: the project results came to fruition thanks to true collaboration and mutual trust between industry stakeholders and scientists.