North Sea Farm 1, launched by North Sea Farmers, is a groundbreaking floating farm located among offshore wind turbines. This innovative project aims to test and enhance seaweed cultivation techniques, while also supporting scientific research on the potential of seaweed farms for carbon sequestration.
By making use of the unused space between wind turbines, the project seeks to significantly expand seaweed farming in the North Sea. With the available space in current and future wind farms, the goal is to scale production to 1 million tons of fresh seaweed per year by 2040. This could sequester and prevent the release of millions of tons of CO2.
Following the successful installation of the first test site in 2023, North Sea Farmers awarded Doggerland Offshore another contract to install larger anchors within the operational Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm. Operating within a live wind farm requires careful planning and engineering. Hollandse Kust Zuid, located 18 kilometers off the coast between Scheveningen and Zandvoort, is owned by Vattenfall, BASF, and Allianz. It consists of 139 turbines, generating enough electricity to power 1.5 million Dutch households.
In early August, Doggerland Offshore successfully completed the first phase of North Sea Farm 1 installation. Using a large seagoing crane barge, the team transported and installed 13-meter-long eco-anchors with nature restoration functions and heavy anchoring chains. The installation process, which took only two days, involved driving the anchors into the seafloor using a vibratory hammer.
The next phase, seeding and further installation, is set to begin in mid-October. The seaweed farm is expected to be fully operational by the end of the year, with hopes that North Sea Farm 1 will serve as a scalable model for offshore seaweed cultivation worldwide.
Photo’s by Menno Mulder