Oceans of Energy and The Seaweed Company sustainably collaborate
Published by Bella Weetch,
Editorial Assistant
Energy Global,
Oceans of Energy and The Seaweed Company have announced that they have installed offshore solar and seaweed farms at the North Sea Farmers test site, 12 km off the shore of Scheveningen, the Netherlands. The two farms make use of the same space at sea to produce both solar energy and farm seaweed, illustrating the potential for the future use of space between offshore wind turbines off the coast of the Netherlands.
The offshore solar and seaweed farms are part of the European H2020 United project that is aimed at promoting sustainable and multi-use offshore systems within the EU. The Solar at Sea project is supported by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (in Dutch: Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, RVO), through the Topsector Energy of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, and European regional development projects ‘ENCORE’ and ‘OceanDemo’.
The Seaweed Company active in Dutch waters for the first time
Seaweed has lots of valuable functions in food for humans, animals and plants, but can also serve as basis for materials, bioplastics and energy. To facilitate these functions, The Seaweed Company has multiple seaweed farms abroad. In the Netherlands, the future of large-scale seaweed production lies in offshore wind parks. For this offshore production of seaweed, the ‘Cultivator’ was developed in collaboration with several Dutch partners. This cultivation system is expected to produce 15 000 kg of seaweed and take up 1.8 t of CO2.
Oceans of Energy’s solar panels now at two sites on the Dutch North Sea
In 2019, one of the first offshore solar farms in the world was installed by Oceans of Energy on the Dutch North Sea. At the first site, the system has produced clean energy for one year, weathered the sea climate, endured waves up to 4 m and survived the storms Ciara and Dennis in the winter of 2019. At this second site – which is further offshore on the North Sea – the system has been designed and built to endure waves of 13 m. The system is ready for the realisation of combined offshore solar and wind projects, creating 100 to 5000 MW of offshore solar energy per project. By using only 5% of the Dutch North Sea, half of the energy demand of the Netherlands can be generated. This can be accomplished by using the space between wind turbines.
For more news and technical articles from the global renewable industry read our latest issue of Energy Global magazine.
Energy Global’s Winter 2020 issue
The Winter issue of Energy Global provides a range of technical articles covering technological advancements and future outlooks in the renewables sector, from companies including CorPower Ocean, Rystad Energy, Black & Veatch, Voltalia, FUERGY, and more.
Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/special-reports/07122020/oceans-of-energy-and-the-seaweed-company-sustainably-collaborate/
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