Amazon has announced it is providing funding of €1.5 million ($1.6 million) for a commercial-scale seaweed farm located between offshore wind turbines. The project is considered the first of its kind.
The project, known as North Sea Farm 1, will be located in a wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands. It has been designed to test and improve methods of seaweed farming while researching seaweed's potential to sequester carbon. Seaweed has great potential to help tackle climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide as it grows, and locating seaweed farms between offshore wind turbines uses untapped space in oceans.
The grant will provide the investment required to construct a 10-hectare (25-acre) seaweed farm, which is expected to produce at least 6,000 kilograms of fresh seaweed in its first year.
By locating the farm in previously empty space between turbines, the project is able to expand seaweed cultivation in the otherwise heavily used North Sea. If seaweed