OX2 has initiated cooperation on a research station in the north of Åland with the aim to develop and test methods to increase biodiversity in connection with the offshore wind projects that the company is developing around Åland.OX2 will cooperate with Under Ytan and Nemo Seafarms, companies that develop commercial algae and seaweed farming combined with ecosystem services such as fish habitat and growing mussels to reduce the effects of overfertilisation in the sea.
The companies will investigate how their operations can be combined together with large-scale offshore wind farms to improve the ecosystem and increase the biological diversity in the Baltic Sea.
Reef formations around the foundations and “fish hotels” for cod are other areas that will be investigated, said OX2.
“We will create opportunities for large scale farming of macro algae and hope that the people living on Åland as well as visitors and people living around the Baltic Sea will be able buy the seaweed produced in these areas in their food stores in the near future”, said Joel Lindholm, founder of Under Ytan.
OX2 has several offshore wind projects in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea on both the Finnish and Swedish sides.
This includes the Finnish Halla and Laine offshore wind projects and the Noatun wind farms near Åland which are estimated to have around 5,000 MW as well as the 1.4 GW Tyrsky wind farm in the Gulf of Bothnia in the Finnish economic zone.
“The conclusions from the project will have a direct effect on the establishment of the Noatun wind farms, but also on the projects Halla, Laine and Tyrsky in the Gulf of Bothnia and for the projects OX2 are developing in Sweden”, said Lotta Nummelin, marine biologist, OX2 Åland.
