Dutch companies Oceans of Energy and The Seaweed Company have installed offshore solar and seaweed farms at the North Sea Farmers test site off the coast of the Netherlands.
The offshore solar and seaweed farms make use of the same space at sea, about 12km off Scheveningen, to both produce solar energy and farm seaweed.
The companies said the project sets an example for the future use of space between offshore wind turbines off the coast of the Netherlands.
The solar and seaweed farms are part of the European H2020United project, that is meant for stimulating sustainable and multi-use offshore systems within the EU.
The Seaweed Company founder and chief executive Joost Wouters (pictured, right) said: “After a year of successful operation on the North Sea with the first offshore solar system, it is very special that we have now accomplished to generate clean energy as well as produce food at sea, because both are important necessities of life.
“It makes me proud that this project shows that we can use the space between wind turbines at sea to its full extent for the cultivation of valuable seaweed.”
The Solar at Sea project is supported by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, through the Energy Topsector of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate and European regional development projects Interreg Encore and OceanDemo.
The Seaweed Company has multiple seaweed farms abroad.
It said that in the Netherlands, the future of large-scale seaweed production lies at offshore wind parks, and this is the first time that seaweed is produced at this scale in the Dutch North Sea.
Oceans of Energy’s solar panels are now at two sites on the Dutch North Sea.
The first offshore solar farm in the world was installed a year ago, while the second site, which is further offshore on the North Sea, aims also to combine with offshore wind, the company said.