This autumn, the world’s first commercial seaweed farm will open within the Hollandse Kust Zuid (HKZ) wind farm, located approximately 18 kilometers off the coast between The Hague and Zandvoort in the North Sea.
North Sea Farm 1, initiated by North Sea Farmers with funding from Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund, is a floating farm situated among wind turbines where seaweed cultivation can be tested and improved. The site will also host scientific research on seaweed farms’ potential for carbon sequestration.
By utilizing the previously unused space between turbines, the project aims to expand seaweed cultivation in the heavily used North Sea. There is ample room in current and future wind farms in the North Sea to scale production to 1 million tons of fresh seaweed per year by 2040, potentially sequestering and avoiding millions of tons of CO2.
The project, led by North Sea Farmers (NSF), is executed by a consortium of scientific researchers and partners from the seaweed industry. The seaweed farm is expected to be operational by the end of this year. The consortium hopes North Sea Farm 1 will serve as a replicable commercial model for offshore seaweed cultivation globally.
North Sea Farm 1 is designed to catalyze the scaling up of the seaweed sector. Upon completion, the farm will cover 5 hectares and is expected to produce at least 6,000 kg of fresh seaweed in its first year, to be processed into innovative applications for Europe. Like packaging, animal feed as health enhancer, cosmetic products as texturiser, in agriculture to increase resilience of crops, etc.
“Hollandse Kust Zuid is one of the newest wind farms in the North Sea and is relatively close to the coast, about two hours by boat. We hope this project will further convince people of the scalability of seaweed in the North Sea, as well as other forms of co-use like solar energy, wave energy, and nature restoration.”
Eef Brouwers, General Director of North Sea Farmers
Hollandse Kust Zuid
The Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm, situated between Scheveningen and Zandvoort, approximately 18 kilometers off the Dutch coast, is owned by Vattenfall, BASF, and Allianz. The wind farm, inaugurated by King Willem-Alexander in September 2023, consists of 139 turbines and generates enough electricity to power 1.5 million Dutch households.
Amazon’s Investment
Amazon provided €1.5 million for the establishment of North Sea Farm 1 and a year of scientific research on CO2 reduction through seaweed cultivation. This investment is part of Amazon’s global $100 million Right Now Climate Fund, which supports nature-based solutions.
“We are excited that North Sea Farm 1 is on the verge of becoming a fully operational seaweed farm. We look forward to gaining more insights into the potential of seaweed to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the scientific research that North Sea Farmers, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and their partners will conduct.”
Roeland Donker, Country Manager of Amazon Netherlands
North Sea Farmers
North Sea Farmers (NSF) has been representing the European seaweed industry as a non-profit organisation since 2014. NSF leads this project to gather 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.
