North Sea Farm #1 officially launched!
2024-09-24
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.
Eef Brouwers, Managing Director of NSF, said: "North Sea Farm 1 is placed in a previously unused space between wind turbines, allowing the project to expand seaweed cultivation in the otherwise heavily utilised North Sea. If seaweed farming were to expand to occupy the entire space occupied by wind farms, expected to be approximately 1 million hectares by 2040, this could capture and avoid millions of tons of CO2 annually."
“This project plays a vital role in Amazon’s broader sustainability story and everything we do to explore and support ways that can restore biodiversity and help fight climate change,” said Roeland Donker, Country Manager, Amazon, Netherlands. “There is still so much to explore and learn from seaweed cultivation and sequestration in our oceans. The fact that we can play a role in this, supporting vital research by North Sea Farmers and their partners - which one day we hope to share with the world - is incredibly exciting.”
Felix Leinemann, Head of Unit, Blue Economy Sectors, Aquaculture and Maritime Spatial Planning at European Commission said: “The farming of seaweed can contribute to achieving the EU’s objectives in terms of decarbonisation, zero pollution, circularity, the preservation and restoration of biodiversity, the protection of ecosystems and the development of environmental services. This is in line with what the European Commission wishes to promote through the EU Algae Initiative. What is particular about this project is that it models the impacts of large-scale seaweed farming within an offshore wind farm. Hopefully it will prove that multi-use of the limited space at sea is not just a concept, but a reality and can eventually be commercially viable. This is why we very much welcome this initiative from North Sea Farmers and Amazon, as it is fully in line with our objectives for a sustainable blue economy.”
Funding by Amazon
Amazon has made €1.5 million available for the establishment of North Sea Farm 1 and a year of scientific research into CO2 reduction through seaweed cultivation. This investment is part of Amazon’s global Right Now Climate Fund, which totals $100 million globally and is intended to support climate and biodiversity projects that benefit both people and planet.
About North Sea Farmers
Since 2014, North Sea Farmers (NSF) has been the (non-profit) representative of the European seaweed industry. NSF is leading this project with the goal of gathering essential evidence for the sector. The consortium includes researchers from Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PLM), Deltares, and Silvestrum Climate Associates, seaweed extract manufacturer Algaia, project developer Simply Blue Group, and maritime contractors Van Oord and Doggerland Offshore.
For more information about the North Sea Farm 1 project, see: [https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/sustainability/introducing-the-worlds-first-commercial-scale-seaweed-farm-located-between-offshore-wind-turbines](https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/sustainability/introducing-the-worlds-first-commercial-scale-seaweed-farm-located-between-offshore-wind-turbines)
