Project Launches to Pair Offshore Wind with Sustainable Food Production

March 15, 2023, by Adnan Durakovic

Win@Sea, a new collaboration between Vattenfall and Danish universities and companies, will investigate how to produce offshore wind power and sustainable food – all while improving the marine environment and biodiversity in the same marine area.

Illustration; Kriegers Flak offshore wind farm in Danish Baltic Sea; Photo: Vattenfall

The partners will look into whether an offshore wind farm could simultaneously produce fossil-free electricity and sustainable food while also contributing positively to biodiversity in the same area.

”At Vattenfall, we want to produce fossil-free electricity without negatively affecting the environment and biodiversity. We are working towards our energy-producing assets, such as offshore wind turbines, contributing positively to biodiversity. That is why we are looking for synergies between fossil-free energy production and consideration for nature,” said marine biologist Matthieu Povidis-Delefosse from Vattenfall.

Vattenfall has made Scandinavia’s largest offshore wind farm, Danish Kriegers Flak, available for the project.

Specifically, blue mussels, sugar kelp, sea lettuce, and dulse will be produced on lines at the offshore wind farm. A number of monitoring and research activities will also take place.

Vattenfall has also undertaken to lead one of the project’s eight work streams. This deals with safety and operational logistics, as well as coordinating knowledge and data exchange between the researchers and the team at Vattenfall in charge of the daily operation of the wind farm.

”Danish Kriegers Flak is a large and modern offshore wind farm from 2021, which attracts great international interest. We are now opening a whole new chapter as Kriegers Flak, through Win@Sea, creates new ways for sustainable food production such as algae and mussels while contributing positively towards biodiversity,” said Povidis-Delefosse.

Win@Sea is headed by Aarhus University and will run from 2023-26. In addition to Vattenfall, the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, the Kattegatcenter, and Kerteminde Seafarm are also participating in the project. The project is partly funded by the Horizon Europe project: OLAMUR (Offshore Low-trophic Aquaculture in Multi-Use scenario Realisation).

In parallel, Vattenfall is also a knowledge partner in the Seamark Horizon Europe project.

”Seamark completes the Win@Sea project very nicely, as Seamark focuses on seaweed value chain and product development and testing to further the potential of algae-based product in the EU,” said Povidis-Delefosse.