Life Elia

We won !

The LIFE Elia-RTE project has just been awarded the first prize
in the category "Best environmental practices" in a competition
organized by Renewables Grid Initiative. A great recognition for our project
and for all our partners !

This award honours months of hard work that we have summarized for you in this newsletter.

We wish you a good reading, and all the best for 2016 !

Actions on site in Belgium and France

In Belgium

Contacts with public and private owners as well as with land managers have been continued. Agreements have been signed and we could start in Autumn 2015 a series of works on site : plantations of forest edges and orchards on the sites of Martelange, Arlon, Bertrix, Havelange, Rochefort, Theux and Bovigny, but also digging ponds in areas of Bertrix, Sainte-Ode, Saint-Médard and Havelange.
On site actions are not always a piece of cake, as explained in a comprehensive summary of planting actions of Autumn-Winter 2015 but the team and all our partners are adapting and progressing well !

Let's zoom on two important sites : Couvin, where sheep are replacing machines, and Martelange where cows took place under the double power line.
 

To ensure the success of the spreading by common heather (Calluna vulgaris) in our heathland restoration (Natura 2000 habitat), an original seed collection was carried out on the plateau of Saint-Hubert.

In France

The Haute Durance site (Hautes Alpes_05) keeps on progressing through contacts with local partners to assist the LIFE team for on site actions. A total of 60 kg of 12 plants have recently been harvested to extract the seeds and produce local indigenous young plants to be planted under overhead high-voltage lines in the near future. An efficient harvest led by the team with the valuable help of students from the Provincial High School Condorcet-Hainaut (Ath, Belgium).

In the same dynamic, 20 kg of medlar trees were collected near the site of the French Ardennes (Ardennes_08).
In Forêt d'Orient (Aube_10), the arrival of sheep under the overhead line was prepared from spring and was presented to the public during the Festival of Nature in May, along with the signature of the agreement between LIFE Elia-RTE's local partners.

Powerful tools : mapping and cost-benefit analysis

An interactive mapping

You want to visit our sites, to see which actions were carried out and view on site photos? All this from your computer ? Visit our website for an interactive tour of our sites !

Cost-benefit analysis

Supporting sustainable biodiversity, and enhance societal acceptance airlines ... while lowering management costs for the manager of the electricity transmission network.
This is what results from the cost-benefit analysis conducted by the LIFE and Elia team ! A document expected by many stakeholders in the electricity transmission sector in Europe. Download it on our website.

Biological inventories: the first results !

With the arrival of autumn, the season of biological inventories came to an end. The following groups were surveyed in different sections of LIFE Elia-RTE's power lines: higher flora, birds, butterflies, bats, amphibians and dragonflies.
The first results related to these two last groups in Belgium are encouraging, given the rapid colonization of ponds recently created. A summary of result obtained in other study groups is being prepared.

In French Ardennes, the first benefits of peatlands restoration actionsundertaken since 2012 are remarkable. The inundated club moss (Lycopodiella inundata) has reappeared after more than a century of absence.

Communication and raising awareness

On the occasion of the Nature Parks' day in Wallonia in May, the team presented concrete field actions to show the potential of powerlines in terms of connectivity for animal and vegetal species.

Earlier in January, the team talked about the project to 40 staff members of Eliain Brussels headquarter.
 
We were also present in Finistere and Forêt d'Orient for the French national Nature Festival.

In Forêt d'Orient, it was also an opportunity to sign the agreement between the partners on site : RTE, the Municipality of Brienne-la-Vieille, the Regional Nature Park of the Forêt d'Orient, the Conservatory of Natural Areas of Champagne-Ardenne Region, local shepherd and the LIFE Elia-RTE project.

The team also had the chance to present the project during an event organized by DG Environment of the European Commission and twice at a meeting and the final conference of the BESTGRID project.

Finally, the team had a speech in a conference organized by ITTECOP (land linear transport infrastructures, ecosystems and landscapes) in Nice and in a symposium organized by ILCN (International Land Conservation Network) in Berlin.

Networking at European level

LIFE Elia-RTE's methods can be adapted all over Europe! More meetings at European level were held in 2015 !
 
The major event of this year in terms of networking is undoubtedly the event organised by the team and by Elia in Belgium that gathered for 40 people from 22 institutions from 15 different European countries. The project was presented indoors and on site during two days spent in various places in Wallonia.

In November, Portuguese electricity Transmission System Operator REN signed a partnership agreement together with the LIFE Elia-RTE project. This partnership covers the exchange of good practices and the launch of two pilot sites in Portugal.

Earlier in the year, we travelled to Oslo to present the project to the Norwegian Transmission System Operator Statnett.

Finally, in March we were presenting the results of the cost-benefit analysis at the Asset and Implementation Management working group of ENTSO-E, the European body of electricity Transmission System Operators.

For questions or further information, please do not hesitate, contact us !

Read our newsletter 7.