Dutch scientists, part of North Sea Farmers, are implementing the world’s first seaweed farm located entirely within an offshore wind farm.

With backing from Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund, this project will see 5 hectares of fresh seaweed grown amongst the 139 turbines that make up the Hollandse Kust Zuid farm.

As reported by IFLScience, the farm expects to grow a whopping 6,000 kg of Seaweed in its first year alone.

Eef Brouwers, the General Manager of North Sea Farmers, explained how this project is breaking barriers in the renewable sector:

“HKZ is one of the newest wind farms in the North Sea and is relatively close to the coast. With a two-hour boat trip, we can show our stakeholders how a seaweed farm can be integrated into an offshore wind farm. We hope this project will further convince people of the scaling opportunities in the North Sea with seaweed and other forms of multi-use.”

Like the wind turbines towering above it, seaweed also has its own positive impacts on the climate, with its ability to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere reducing the quantity of greenhouse gases.

Even though it is incredible for the planet – and human health – seaweed is notoriously difficult for us to grow en masse.

This is because seaweed requires specific conditions to grow;  we only have a finite amount of coastline to farm it along.

Professor Ana Queirós, the project’s scientific lead, explained the power of this project to change the scope of seaweed farming for environmental reasons forever:

“The integration of seaweed cultivation with offshore wind farms offers an opportunity to resolve space constraints for the seaweed sector in coastal areas, with additional potential for atmospheric CO2 uptake. Our aim is to understand how this sector could be used for long-term carbon sequestration, which is still poorly understood.”

This pioneering project will recreate the conditions required for seaweed to grow, while not congesting our coastline.

This will help to reach the high demands that seaweed is projected to reach in the coming decades.

So there’s plenty of reasons to get excited as we’re only now beginning to unlock the full potential of seaweed in the fight to protect our future.

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