HS Orka to sell surplus hot water from geothermal power plant to fish farming operation
Reykjanes power plant of HS Orka, Iceland (source: Commons/ Wikimedia)
Alexander Richter
28 Aug 2011
Icelandic HS Orka and global fish farming operator Stolt Sea Farm agree on the sale of surplus hot water from the geothermal power plant at Reykjanes for fish farming operations.
Reported this week in World Fishing, “Icelandic energy company HS Orka and one of the larger global fish farming operators Stolt Sea Farm have agreed that the aquaculture specialists will utilise surplus hot water from a geothermal plant for breeding Senegalese sole.
Construction of the seven hectare farm on the Reykjanes peninsula, estimated to cost around ISK2.5bn (US$21.4 million), is to begin at the end of this year.
Studies seem to point to controlled fluctuations of temperature as being significant to the spawning of Senegalese sole, so the hot water from the system will play an important part in the life-cycle. Another problem associated with rearing these fish seems to be the density at which they are kept. Therefore, the size of the footprint available to the farm on the peninsula, which is largely uninhabited larval rock, also makes a difference.
However, the project has yet to be approved by Iceland’s Environment Agency, Icelandic newspaper Fréttabladid reports.
“It is a question of very few megawatts so this isn’t heavy industry in that sense,” says Asgeir Margeirsson, chairman of HS Orka. “However, it is an excellent addition and increases the diversity of the use of geothermal heat. It will, for example, take advantage of surplus energy from the power plant which wouldn’t be used otherwise,” he added.
Stolt Sea Farm’s CEO Pablo Garcia expects the breeding station to create direct employment for about 50 people, plus around 75 further indirectly related jobs.”
Source: World Fishing
