Andfjord Salmon celebrated a milestone on mid-November as its first 20-meter-deep flow-through pool at its land-based salmon farm in Kvalnes, Andøya, Norway was successfully filled with seawater.
The move had been delayed by several months to allow the company to conduct extensive testing to ensure the pool’s equipment, sensors and filtration systems were functional, Andfjord Salmon CEO Martin Rasmussen said in a press release.
"The test period, which was initiated several weeks ago, is a step-by-step process to obtain knowledge and understanding of how the pool and the equipment respond to seawater – both inside and outside the pool,” he said. “This week, the water is at peak level, and so far, everything looks great.”
Further testing will take place at different fill stages over the coming weeks, along with an assessment of the laminar water flow, according to the company.
Rasmussen said by using a flow-through system with laminar water flow, energy consumption and associated costs will be reduced significantly, as there is no need to lift, filter, or heat the seawater. The company estimates that the energy needed to produce one kilo of salmon will be as low as one kWh.
The farm’s seawater will be pumped from 160 meters in the winter and 30 meters in the summer, which provides stable temperatures of between seven and 12 degrees Celsius year-round, and gives optimal growth conditions for Atlantic salmon in the Norwegian Arctic. The depth of the water intake is also below the danger level for sea lice and algal blooms, according to the company.
Andfjord said it expects to release smolts into the 1,000-metric-ton (MT) capacity pool in the second quarter of 2022. Work is also underway to construct the farm’s other pools.
"The knowledge we acquire through the testing of the first pool will be highly beneficial for the forthcoming construction and utilization of our other pools at Kvalnes,” Rasmussen said. “The key advantage of an extensive test period is that we can reduce time, costs, and execution risk when developing the next pools.”
With work progressing at the Kvalnes site and rights to land secured for further expansion, Andfjord Salmon has the potential to produce around 90,000 MT of head-on, gutted salmon at full capacity.
Additionally, Andfjord has added Gro Skaar Knutsen, who the company said has “considerable experience with large construction firms in Norway,” to its board of directors. Knutsen was elected to the board in October 2021 at an extraordinary general meeting, and Jostein Nilssen, who has led projects for ConocoPhillips, one of the world's biggest oil companies, was appointed as project director at the end of September.
Photo courtesy of Andfjord Salmon
