Serial entrepreneur Geir Nordahl-Pedersen has applied for one and plans for two more land-based fish farms. He talked to SalmonBusiness about his plans for what could become Norway’s largest land-based salmon farms.
The first application has already been submitted to Solund municipality, Western Norway, and Losna Seafood wrote in it that they want permission to start a land-based fish farm at Losna with an annual capacity of 50,000 tonnes. The plan is to detonate mountain rock to create a 500m x 90m basin with space for about 30 cages.
But Nordahl-Pedersen has even bigger plans.
Previously, two of the plants from Nordahl-Pedersen have been discussed. In addition to the applied for plant, Nordahl-Pedersen has stated that they are planning a facilty at Averøy (Central Norway). Nordahl-Pedersen now reveals to SalmonBusiness that he is planing yet another facility.
“We are also planning for a third facility, at Øygarden,” he said.
Two large and one smaller
Nordahl-Pedersen said that the Averøy facility will have the same capacity as that at Losna. While the one at Øygarden is going to be somewhat smaller. If everything goes according to plan, his plants will create well over 100,000 tonnes of land-based salmon a year.
“The applications for the next two plants will arrive very soon. The one at Øygarden (west of Bergen) will probably be the first one, and is just around the corner,” he said.
Read more: Go-ahead given to build Norway’s largest land-based fish farm complex
Nordahl-Pedersen is confident that his plan and facilities will work.
“The concept and plant we have designed will be able to produce salmon significantly cheaper than any other plant today. By getting into the mountains in closed cages we avoid all the problems others have in the sea. Nor will there be any infection between cages and we will only use the water in each closed cage one time before swapping it out,” said Nordahl-Pedersen.
Finance
Nordahl-Pedersen does not want to talk about how the facilities are financed.
“But what I can say is that it’s considerably cheaper to make such a facility that we have tried to patent than other land-based facilities,” he said.
Nordahl-Pedersen earned his millions in the oil technology company, AGR. He has previously stated to SalmonBusiness that he thinks it is interesting to work with farming.
“I think farming is very exciting. It’s an industry with opportunities both in terms of technology and other things. There’s a lot of technology coming in,” he said, while outlining the challenges surrounding the technology at the facilities he is planning.
