ICE 1412C drives anchor piles for seaweed farm

In collaboration with Simply Blue Group, Van Oord, Algaia, and Amazon, North Sea Farmers (NSF) opened the world’s first commercial-scale seaweed farm within the offshore wind farm ‘Hollandse Kust Zuid’ (HKZ), located about 18 kilometres off the coast of Scheveningen in the North Sea. North Sea Farm #1 initiated by NSF with funding from Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund, is a floating farm located in the open space between wind turbines where seaweed production can be tested and improved. In parallel, scientific research aims to validate the carbon sequestration potential of seaweed farms and measure biodiversity impacts. In the North Sea, offshore seaweed cultivation has only be done in the form of research pilots. But to understand what makes a viable and scalable business model and what the impacts are on the environment, NSF is going to start a commercially operated seaweed farm including the onshore processing activities.

The seaweed farm is located within the wind farm Hollandse Kust Zuid IV, nearly 22 km of the coast of Scheveningen. The owners of this wind farm are: Vattenfall, BASF & Allianz. The offshore wind farm consists of 139 turbines with a total capacity of 1.5GW. This equals the electricity needs of 1,5 million Dutch Households.

In this innovation phase the project starts with one seaweed production system that comprises 4 nets that float just below the water surface by means of floating pipes. This system stays in place thanks to its anchoring system with chains running down to 2 pile anchors, one on each side. These so-called eco- anchors have a special nature restoration feature that sticks 2m out of the seabed to provide shelter for all kinds of marine life.

The purposes of this seaweed farm are:

Show that seaweed farming between offshore wind turbines is technically feasible
Demonstrate that the young European seaweed sector can organise itself
Confirm genuine interest from European markets in seaweed products
Climate and environmental research objectives
Demonstrate the viability of co-use in offshore wind farms