North Sea Farmers reached another milestone in the construction of the world’s very first commercial-scale offshore seaweed farm within an wind farm with the successful installation of pre-seeded nets. With this final deployment step, the seaweed farm North Sea Farm 1 (NSF#1), located in the Hollandse Kust Zuid Offshore Wind Farm in the Dutch North Sea, is now fully operational.
The installation of the pre-seeded nets took place last week and involved several parties, including Simply Blue Group, CIV Den Oever, Hortimare, SEAWISER and Doggerland Offshore. The latter was contracted to execute the offshore operation. The installation was successfully performed using the ‘Coastal Crown’ vessel,
The installation follows the installation of the anchors this summer. These include two state of the art Eco-anchors, 13m long piles with the top 2m covered with nature restoration substrate.
North Sea Farm 1
NSF#1 covers five hectares and aims to test and improve seaweed cultivation and pioneer scientific research to explore the potential of seaweed farms to capture and store carbon, helping to combat climate change.
NSF#1 is led by North Sea Farmers, together with a consortium of European scientists and research partners. The farm and a year of scientific research into the potential of seaweed to sequester carbon is funded by Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund, a $100 million global initiative supporting climate resilience and nature conservation.
Located within the ‘Hollandse Kust Zuid‘ (HKZ) wind farm, approximately 18 kilometers off the coast of Scheveningen in the North Sea, the farm will produce at least 6,000 kilograms of seaweed in the first year, which can be used to create a wide range of products, including clothing, food and wellbeing items. If other seaweed producers follow its example, North Sea Farm 1 could also serve as a blueprint for offshore seaweed cultivation worldwide, becoming a catalyst to scale Europe’s nascent seaweed sector. NSF#1 was inaugurated at the end of September this year. Source: NSF Images: Menno Mulder
