As offshore space becomes increasingly crowded, a key question emerges: how can we use the North Sea more efficiently while balancing energy production, food systems, ecosystem restoration, and maritime security?

These questions were at the heart of the third SWiM workshop, Towards a Future-Proof North Sea. Building on earlier discussions about offshore wind and floating solar, participants explored how offshore infrastructure can evolve from single-purpose energy sites into multifunctional platforms that create broader societal value.

The workshop took place on 3 March 2026 in Brussels and brought together stakeholders from industry, research and policy to discuss the future of multi-use offshore systems in the Belgian North Sea.

Participants also emphasized the growing importance of protecting critical maritime infrastructure. Offshore energy assets can play a wider role in maritime surveillance and situational awareness through integrated monitoring technologies, contributing to a safer and more resilient North Sea.

Across all discussions, one message stood out clearly: successful multi-use requires co-design rather than retrofitting. Energy, nature, food production and security should be considered together from the planning phase onwards. Achieving this vision will require collaboration across sectors, supportive regulatory frameworks and continued experimentation through pilot projects.

Recent analyses provide a clearer view of how floating PV behaves in harsh marine conditions and which design choices offer the best balance between durability, efficiency, and compatibility with offshore wind. The findings highlight both the technical feasibility and the key challenges that must be addressed for reliable large-scale deployment.

The SWiM Deliverable D1.1, issued by imec and UHasselt, reviews the operating conditions and design concepts for floating photovoltaic (FPV) systems, with a focus on offshore applications. The report includes energy yield simulations for case studies in the North Sea, including the SeaVolt pilot in Ostende.

Offshore FPV faces harsher conditions than inland systems, including stronger winds, higher UV exposure, humidity, salinity, and biofouling, which demand robust, marine-grade materials and structural designs. Despite these challenges, offshore locations provide cooling benefits due to lower ambient and module temperatures, slightly improving PV efficiency.

Among design concepts, east-west orientation – although yielding 3–6% less annual energy than south-facing – offers advantages such as better space use, reduced wind loads, and alignment with demand peaks, making it promising for offshore deployment.

Platform elevation improves cooling modestly, and static shading simulations show that nearby wind turbine towers reduce annual PV yield by less than 3% in the worst-case scenario (tower south), reinforcing the viability of hybrid offshore wind–PV farms.

Overall, the report concludes that offshore FPV is technically feasible and complementary to offshore wind, provided durability and reliability challenges in marine environments are addressed. Further assessment of reliability aspects, including Failure Mechanisms and Effects Analysis, and mechanical stress evaluation, is in progress.

Fig 1. Daily variation of module temperature (daily mean) averaged over five years (2020-2024) in the North Sea (offshore) and Genk (inland) for an east-west facing system with 15° tilt.

Fig 2. Daily variation of UV dose averaged over five years (2020-2024) in the North Sea (offshore) and Genk (inland) for an east-west facing system with 15° tilt.

Fig 3. Simulated Specific Yield averaged over five years (2020-2024) in the North Sea (offshore) and Genk (inland) for an east-west facing system with 15° tilt.

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We stand at a crossroads: should we focus on scaling mature technologies such as offshore wind to maximise efficiency and cost-effectiveness, or should we invest in diversification – integrating OPV, wave energy, and other emerging technologies – to strengthen system robustness, innovation and energy autonomy? These questions where at the heart of the second SWIM workshop.

When does system robustness outweigh price considerations? How do we balance innovation, resilience, and affordability in an increasingly complex offshore environment?

While many of the issues surrounding OPV- such as harsh marine conditions, grid integration, and environmental permitting- are of a practical and engineering nature, they also reflect broader choices about what kind of energy system we wish to build.

The answers determine how Belgium’s offshore strategy contributes not only to renewable targets but also to long-term sustainability and sovereignty. The discussions showed that offshore wind currently faces economic challenges, making the integration of offshore floating solar (OFPV) systems complex and costly, so early development should occur nearshore or in sunnier regions while Belgium focuses on optimising wind energy and expanding storage capacity.

Effective combination of OFPV and wind requires co-design from the outset, since retrofitting existing infrastructure adds expense and undermines reliability. Although hybrid systems raise capital costs, they can become viable at scale, with energy storage offering more immediate benefits in the Belgian North Sea context.

Progress in OFPV depends on achieving design standardisation and advancing through small, low-risk pilot projects that pave the way for larger future deployments. Simplifying the current multi-agency permitting system into a single coordinated framework would greatly improve governance and project efficiency.

Policy support should focus on targeted innovation funding and accessible offshore testing, such as at the Blue Accelerator, rather than on modifying tenders unsuited to emerging technologies. Ensuring reliability requires corrosion-resistant materials, water-proof cabling, and durable PV module designs capable of withstanding harsh marine conditions.

While shading from turbines can cause modest solar energy losses, these effects can be minimised through optimised panel orientation and layout.

Given the limited feasibility of wave energy in Belgium, the most promising hybrid approach combines offshore wind, solar, and energy storage.

Today the opinion of the participants tends to be that Belgium should continue prioritising wind optimisation and storage integration while developing OFPV gradually through co-designed, standardised, and scalable systems.

BIG THANKS to our expert speakers Valentin Dupont(Ocean Energy Europe), Sten Swanenberg ( Dutch Wave power), Midas Caubergs (Elia) , Andrew Borg (FLASC).

Curious to dive deeper into the workshop’s insights? A comprehensive report of the workshop is now available.

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