Stavanger-based Blueday Technology has won a contract to deliver emissions-cutting technology to the fish-farming operations of Grieg Seafood, it was learned Friday.
Blueday, formerly Halvorsen Power Systems, integrates batteries into a vessel’s onboard power and propulstion system, while traditionally also providing stationary power generators. Its new SMART Hybrid Power solutions of integrated wind, solar and battery power will, it is understood, replace diesel generators and other aquaculture-related power producers at Grieg’s remote grow-outs like those in British Columbia, Canada.
“This project will reinforce Blueday Technology’s position in this segment and will open up more market opportunities, thus consolidating our capabilities as a system integration provider,” stated Hans Petter Heggebo, CEO, at Blueday Technology.
Diesel preference
Fish-farmers operating in B.C. have come under harsh criticism for repeat diesel leaks, although diesel generators remain the “preferred” power solution all along the Pacific Northwest, right up through Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. If Blueday can keep costs down, that Pacific preference might change.
Blueday Technology, like onboard power integrators Siemens and ABB, are understood to use the battery technology of Canadian company Corvus or Trondheim-based PBES Norway, both of which were founded by B.C. entrepreneur, Brent Perry. Both Blueday, which offers battery “choice”, and the two Canadian-born companies have been along in the conversion of a growing number of Norwegian vessels — from ferries to fishing vessels — to hybrid energy conversion.
Green subsidy
Grieg’s use of Blueday’s solution in Canada could be timed to perfection, as the Canadian government has just allotted millions of dollars for small and medium-sized fish farmers to get “greener” by investing in more energy-efficient designs of all sorts. The Blueday communique wasn’t clear on the configuration of the “green power” solution in their Grieg contract, but stationary power for Grieg sites in Canada is implied here: “Up until now the industry has been focusing on electric vessels, but Blueday and Grieg Seafood will now be greening fish farming assets and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Heggebo was quoted as saying.
The installation ought to be finished during the second half of 2018.
