GreenWave : A concept for a sustainable energy station for offshore fish farms

Abstract: The fish farming industry is today the second largest industry in Norway, second to the oil industry. These two major industries constitute the core of the Norwegian economy. A general belief is that the oil industry will decrease. Along with this the fish farming industry is believed to be the major industry, especially when it comes to exporting. The fish farming industry has to expand but one major issue is its sustainability. One step towards a more sustainable fish farming industry could be to reduce its use of fossil energy resources. Another aspect with an expansion is that locations will be moved offshore creating a rougher environment. The project aims to investigate the possibility to use renewable energy sources at fish farming sites and to design a self-sufficient energy system based on these sources. The goal is to create a concept that can satisfy the energy need of fish farms in different sizes and function in a system placed in an offshore environment. The project constitutes of a design study. In this case it means research of a problem within the fish farming industry to create a concept of a solution to the problem. For the background research field studies and literature studies have been used. For the design development brainstorming, sketching and 3D modelling were used. Three potential concepts have been developed and one was chosen for further development. The project resulted in the GreenWave concept, a design concept for energy production and wave sheltering for offshore fish farms. The GreenWave can deliver sufficient energy for fish farms of varying size through wave energy generation using hydro electrical turbines and wave-overtopping technique. The GreenWave concept fulfils the requirements set up for the project. Further work would be economic calculations to investigate the feasibility of the concept.