The new 5-hectare seaweed farm is expected to be operational in the fall and produce at least 6,000 kg of fresh seaweed in its first year.
The world’s first commercial seaweed farm inside a wind farm is about to open off the coast of the Netherlands, IFL Science The pioneering aquaculture facility will be located within the Hollandse Kust Zuid (HKZ), a complex of 139 wind turbines in the North Sea, about 18 km from The Hague and Zandvoort.
Scheduled to open this fall, the farm will cover 5 hectares and produce at least 6,000 kilograms of fresh seaweed in its first year. The project is being developed by Dutch non-profit North Sea Farmers, which is being funded with $1.67 million from Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund.
Seaweed farming is an efficient way to absorb and remove CO2 from the atmosphere, helping to tackle climate change. Data from the project will be used by scientists to further investigate how seaweed farming can reduce carbon emissions.
“We are excited that North Sea Farm 1 is about to become a fully operational seaweed farm. We look forward to gaining further insights into the potential of seaweed to remove CO2 from the atmosphere through the scientific research being conducted by North Sea Farmers, Plymouth Marine Laboratory and our partners,” said Roeland Donker, country manager at Amazon Netherlands.
“Integrating seaweed farming with offshore wind farms offers an opportunity to address the space constraints of the seaweed industry in coastal areas, with the potential to help absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Our goal is to understand how to use this industry for long-term carbon sequestration, which is not yet well understood,” said Professor Ana Queirós, a marine ecologist and climate change scientist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory.
Seaweed is a very nutritious food and is often considered delicious. In addition to containing basic carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, it also contains many nutrients such as magnesium, zinc, vitamin B12, iodine, polyunsaturated fatty acids, antioxidants such as carotenoids and flavonoids. Seaweed also has many other useful applications, from packaging, animal feed to cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
“HKZ is one of the newest wind farms in the North Sea and is relatively close to shore. With a boat trip of around two hours, we can show stakeholders how a seaweed farm can be integrated into an offshore wind farm. We hope this project will convince people of the opportunities for scaling up in the North Sea with seaweed and other multi-purpose uses,” said Eef Brouwers, director of North Sea Farmers.