Hidromod’s Aquasafe Platform Supports Offshore Aquaculture within Wind Farms
Hidromod, the water management consultancy branch of ABL, is playing a key role in the innovative ULTFARMS project through its AquaSafe platform, providing advanced monitoring and decision support for the multi-use of offshore wind farms in the North Sea and Baltic Sea, for the farming of low-trophic aquaculture – a highly sustainable form of nutrition.
The ULTFARMS project
ULTFARMS is an ocean multi-use project that aims to increase European capacity for low-trophic aquaculture by sharing the marine space in multi-use settings with six pilot projects based in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark.
The project brings together stakeholders from the offshore wind farms and low trophic aquaculture value chains to develop environmentally sustainable, low-carbon, and safe low trophic aquaculture products, from design to commercialisation.
Coordinated by Deltares, ULTFARMS is funded by EU Horizon Europe R&I program and has a total budget of around €10 million. It started in January 2023 and it expected to be concluded in June 2026.
ULTFARMS aims to move beyond the current application of Low-Trophic Aquaculture (LTA) systems with novel engineering, technical, ecological and biological processes. This will both optimise production in harsh offshore conditions, low-salinities, and their integration within Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs).
With 25 partners from 9 different countries, ULTFARMS will encompass expertise across the entire value chain for LTA production in OWFs. Through collaboration between research and industry, the project drives the co-development and co-management of innovative designs and operations tailored specifically for offshore environments across the project’s six Low-Trophic Aquaculture Pilots (LTAPs).
Hidromod’s involvement
New cultivation structures, grow-out systems, and both nature restoration and eco-friendly design measures are advanced throughout this project. Utilising existing open databases and operational forecasting systems like Copernicus and SeaDataNet, and integrating them into Hidromod’s monitoring and management platform, AquaSafe, enables enhanced technical support for the effective planning and operation of LTAs.
Hidromod’s scope of work for this project is to provide numerical modelling expertise and to define the parameters required for monitoring using AquaSafe as a platform to process the data and deliver user tailored information.
This includes Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and provision of capabilities to make use of decision support systems that use operational or on-demand models and algorithms.
The goal is to achieve an effective monitoring strategy for ecological, environmental, production, and safety requirements, developing the data flows from different sources and integrating them into a platform to serve the users (OWF and farmers).
ABL Group is committed to advancing innovative solutions that enable responsible marine resource use while supporting the global transition to renewable energy.
By contributing expertise in digital monitoring and decision support, we help create smarter, more efficient, and environmentally conscious offshore developments. Projects like ULTFARMS reflect ABL Group’s mission of driving sustainability across energy and oceans.