Fjord Maritime strengthen their Scottish presence with local cooperation

Norwegian aquaculture technology supplier Fjord Maritime are delighted to announce their cooperation agreement with Scottish aquaculture consultants Northern Light. Northern Light will assist Fjord Maritime to develop their UK presence following the opening of their UK office in Fort William this month.

Magnus Hamnes Salbu, has also recently joined the team as Sales Manager. Magnus will be responsible for the UK market and strengthening relationships with our valued UK clients, he looks forward to meeting existing and potential new clients in due course. 

As the aquaculture industry grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to power fish farms in a sustainable manner. The sectors limited options to produce power in remote farm locations currently results in the sector mainly relying on diesel generators. This is further compounded with exceptional increases in fuel costs comprise a substantial part of expenses for aquaculture operators.

FJORD HYBRID® reduces fuel consumption in fish farms by up to 60 per cent. The solution automates power supply and optimises use of generators, batteries, electrical drives, and control systems.

FJORD HYBRID® uses the spare capacity left on the generator to charge the batteries while the generator feeds the rest of the barge with electricity. When the batteries are fully charged, the generator stops and FJORD HYBRID® operates the system and the site runs fully on batteries.

Supported by the FJORD CONTROL platform, the digital system logs, calculates and presents operating data from any type of fleet. Ensuring there is “eyes” on all installations 24/7 and can troubleshoot, fix, and update software and diesel generators etc. Digitization of operational data is essential to optimize operations and further reduce energy consumption. Through this software it can used to calculate and demonstrate the carbon reduction impact per month per system.

In May, Fjord Maritime were honoured at the Aquaculture UK Awards in Aviemore, receiving the Environmental Impact award for the Fjord Hybrid system.  To date Fjord Maritime have successfully installed 120 hybrid-power systems for feed barges, mostly in Norway.  Fjord are working hard to develop their business in the UK with 3 systems already successfully installed.  Always looking ahead, the target for 2022 is 20 installations in the UK with the ultimate goal to install a  Fjord Hybrid solution on every barge. It is an ambitious target but an important one if the industry is to grow sustainably.

They also intend to increase their Canadian presence with the first installation due imminently.

Fjord Maritime CCO, Øyvind Bakke comments; “We are very much looking forward to entering the Scottish market. To be able to help aquaculture in the UK with our hybrid solution is a great opportunity for us, and it’s going to be even more exciting now that we got our office up and running in Fort William. For us it was an obvious decision connecting and collaborating with Northern Light. We know they are experts in their field and we are very appreciative of the support they provide. We believe that working with them will help us reaching our goals.”

Northern Light are delivering a wide range of innovative projects and services in the Scottish aquaculture sector, with extensive expertise in engineering and project delivery. Northern Light Managing Director Greg Riddle comments “We see a natural alignment in business ethos, striving to deliver sustainable solutions for the sector and we look forward to supporting Fjord Maritime to achieve their ambitions”.