First commercial seaweed farm in Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm

The fall of 2024 marks a historic milestone with the opening of the world's first commercial seaweed farm within the Hollandse Kust Zuid (HKZ) wind farm. Located approximately 18 kilometers off the coast of Scheveningen, North Sea Farm 1 is being developed by North Sea Farmers with financial support from Amazon's Right Now Climate Fund. This innovative floating farm will test seaweed cultivation and conduct scientific research on the potential of seaweed farms to capture carbon.

Innovation in the North Sea

North Sea Farm 1 utilizes unused space between wind turbines, offering the possibility to expand seaweed cultivation in the heavily utilized North Sea. The current and planned wind farms provide ample space to scale up production to 1 million tons of fresh seaweed per year by 2040. This project could contribute to the capture and avoidance of millions of tons of CO2. Led by North Sea Farmers (NSF) and executed by a consortium of scientific researchers and industry partners, the farm is expected to be operational by the end of the year and serve as a commercial model for seaweed cultivation worldwide.

Collaboration and funding

The Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm, owned by Vattenfall, BASF, and Allianz, lies between Scheveningen and Zandvoort and produces electricity for 1.5 million households. Amazon has invested €1.5 million in the establishment of North Sea Farm 1 and a year of scientific research on CO2 reduction through seaweed cultivation. This investment comes from Amazon's Right Now Climate Fund, which totals $100 million globally and supports nature-based solutions.

Eef Brouwers, director of North Sea Farmers, is pleased with the global first permit for a seaweed farm within a wind farm. He emphasizes the importance of seaweed cultivation in the North Sea and other forms of co-use such as solar energy and nature restoration. Roeland Donker, Country Manager of Amazon Netherlands, looks forward to the results of the scientific research and the contribution of seaweed to CO2 reduction.

Aboutamazon.eu

Image: Smartland Landscape Architecture