Blue-Farm - offshore fish farming

A competitive future business concept

OFFSHORE FARMING ISSUES

Advantage: strong current (:clean water), reduced lice risk, less season variations, temp 8-12 C. Disadvantages: Weather (prepared for extreme), waves, currant, distance to land. New thinking needed: Boats, rules offshore, etc.
Data: Max current: 1,5 (-2) m/s. Max waves: 15 m Hs. Water temperature: 5-17 C. Max Wind > 30 m/s. Water depths: no Blue Farm limitation (min = 100 m). Sea bottom: no limits: more anchor alternatives. More than 1 km from coast line.

VISION

With partners - develop future competitive offshore farming/wind power/other projects – political and finance support.

STRATEGY

Be an attractive Blue Sea partner. First challenge: a pilot cage success incl. wind power on common collar.
Then: A competitive future business cluster. Link to a costal Blue Ocean Highway:

• Highway: a) Large fish farms with wind turbines, b) Large wind parks, c) Other blue activities
• Surplus power stored in “Norwegian Batteries” (Lyse?)
• Power supply/services to offshore oil/gas installations and maritime activities

The Blue farm Cage:

Blue Farm

Cage info:

The cage collar is large (D=125 m) and it is tension anchored – a clear advantage.
The cage has one vertical wind turbine (ref figure above, enough power for own supply). A small vertical turbine has been chosen because it has a low center of gravity and it will have easy access to equipment/maintenance. If the fish cage is linked to an offshore cable (: power export) the cage has space for more and even large wind turbines.

Issues:

General: Large investments, apply new technology (automate and robotize). Create winning teams – competence/clusters
Blue Farm: Smolt supply crucial. Fish offtake ( special ships; slaughter and transport) - interesting future options.
Wind power: Cooperation with wind farms, link to power cables and customers, power surplus storage.

Offshore fish farming and Wind power: (need cable to market/large customers) in Norway and/or international.

Competence needed: Aquaculture, farming, met-ocean, project planning, project execution, marine operations, risk, safety, rescue, modification, authority approvals, financing.

Value Chain: Fish in to cage (optimum smolt supplies), fish Food supply, maritime operations, fish out of cage (to slaughter, upgrade, market), transportation (avoid road transport in Norway).

Equipment: Concrete 8-edget collar, concrete 8-edget anchor bin, anchor lines (wire, steel, others), suction anchors, net-section, tension net, inner nets (separation, select export fish), ballast water systems, farming equipment, fish feeding systems, dead fish handling equipment, jetty systems (incl. unloading/loading of ships), control room, cranes, wind turbines, wind kite, power generator, digital systems, smart robotizing, safety equipment, etc.

Blue Farm resources;

Fish farmer: Grieg Seafood – has applied for authority approval (awaiting final outcome). Owners: RS-X (development), BluePlanet (Aquaculture, contacts), Egersund Net (fish net), Akva Group (fish farming equipment).
Partners: Dr. techn. Olav Olsen (concrete offshore). AF group/Kruse Smith (Leading entrepreneurs),
DNV GL (Security and approvals), UNI/Polytec: MetOcean, Sintef: Future fish farming solutions