The Fjord Maritime adventure was started in 2016 by three founders, all with a background in the already declining oil and gas industry. Together, they saw major potential to improve energy efficiency at aquaculture facilities along the Norwegian coast while at the same time reducing CO2 emissions. This was how it all began.
Vidar Rabben, Øyvind Bakke, og Stig Kalvenes
Today, we are the biggest supplier of hybrid solutions to fish farmers worldwide, and we have no plans to slow down. Rather the reverse, in fact.
A lot has happened since 2016, when – with the clear aim of helping the green revolution by electrifying and digitalising the aquaculture industry – we began the laborious task of collecting large volumes of data. We used the knowledge this provided to develop our own unique hybrid solution for feeding rafts – Fjord Hybrid.
Fish farmers depend on electricity to feed their fish. Traditionally, this electricity has been produced by large diesel generators running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. With Fjord Hybrid, the energy is stored in battery packs, allowing the use of the diesel generator to be reduced by up to 90 per cent. This also has the effect of reducing fuel consumption correspondingly, eradicating noise and significantly reducing CO2 emissions.
Battery delivery to our store
The technology and knowledge behind Fjord Hybrid are unique. Fjord Maritime has expertise in the fields of electrification and automation, where the technical solution and software guarantee secure, flexible and functional installations, whether this is about modernising older equipment or installations in new locations.
In addition to Fjord Hybrid, we have developed Fjord Control, a system that provides customers at all times with a full overview of all the technical activities at the aquaculture facility while at the same time collecting environmental data. This is all monitored around the clock in our 24/7 Remote Operation Centre. This is all monitored around the clock in our 24/7 Remote Operation Centre. If a fault develops, whether in our system or the customer’s equipment, our systems will detect this and we are able to take immediate action to prevent any downtime in our customers’ production. We are active partners.
In other words, we have produced a fully automatic operating and optimisation system for aquaculture facilities that reduces both costs and CO2 emissions – something that we are really proud of.
Fjord Energy, one of four modules belonging to the Fjord Hybrid hybrid system
After we had installed the first Fjord Hybrid solution at E. Karstensen Fiskeoppdrett west of Florø on none other than Norway’s Constitution Day (17 May) in 2018, things have only moved in one direction. Our turnover has increased multiple times over and the aquaculture industry has welcomed our climate-friendly solution with open arms and given us a great deal of confidence.
So far, we have sold over 120 hybrid solutions to fish farmers along the coasts of Norway, Scotland, Canada and Chile, and this number continues to rise. We now have almost 40 employees and turnover this year is around NOK 200 million.
At Fjord Maritime, we have great ambitions for further growth in the coming years, too, and we will continue to develop cost-effective climate technology that can be upscaled to a large scale.
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