The North Sea Farm #1 project, a collaboration between Simply Blue Group , Van Oord , Algaia and Amazon , continues to demonstrate significant results by establishing its first large-scale commercial seaweed farm within the Hollandse Kust Zuid ( HKZ ) offshore wind farm.
The commercial seaweed farm
North Sea Farm #1, funded by Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund , uses the space between the park’s wind turbines to sustainably produce seaweed. The project has multiple goals: Create validation on the potential of seaweed farming to capture carbon, improve marine biodiversity, and develop derived products such as food ingredients, bioplastics, fertilizers, biostimulants, and texturizers for cosmetics.
[post_relacionado]The Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm , with 139 turbines and a capacity of 1.5 GW, seeks to demonstrate that the space occupied by offshore wind farms can be simultaneously used for other activities, such as algae cultivation, establishing a replicable model for future developments.
Algae farming contributes to carbon sequestration, and could mitigate environmental problems such as eutrophication and marine acidification , while creating habitats and food sources for marine life. With an estimated initial production of 6,000 kg of wet algae, the long-term projection is to scale up to 1,000 hectares of cultivation, with a minimum production of 10,000 tons of biomass per year.
The consortium behind this project includes research institutions such as Plymouth Marine Laboratory and Deltares , along with carbon sequestration advisors and algae processing experts. Together, they develop advanced technologies and methodologies to maximise cultivation efficiency and minimise environmental impacts.
The North Sea Farm project and the Amazon Climate Fund. Source: North Sea Farm NFS
Although seaweed farming faces economic challenges due to its high cost compared to imported or wild alternatives, temporary subsidies have been identified as a viable solution to foster its competitiveness. This approach has been successfully used in the offshore wind industry and could be vital to scaling up seaweed production in Europe.
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Source and photo: North Sea Farmers