Scottish Sea Farms hatchery up for green award

The Scottish Sea Farms hatchery at Barcaldine has made it on to the shortlist for a major environmental award. The plant is a contender for the Carbon Reduction Award category of the Scottish Green Energy Awards 2021.

The hatchery at Barcaldine, near Oban, was one of those chosen out of more than 100 entries.The Scottish Green Energy Awards showcase Scotland’s renewables sector, honouring “the people, organisations and communities going above and beyond towards achieving net-zero”.

The winners of this year’s Scottish Green Energy Awards will be announced at a black tie awards ceremony on the evening of Thursday, 2 December at the EICC in Edinburgh.

Scottish Sea Farms’ new salmon hatchery uses a 600kw biomass energy system. Supplied by AMP Clean Energy, this uses locally sourced, sustainably managed wood chip to provide the 17,500 m2 Barcaldine Hatchery with much of its heat and hot water, saving 683 tonnes of carbon annually compared with oil.

The farming technology itself has also been designed to be sustainable with a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) that enables the team to:

• Recirculate up to 98% of freshwater used per day, saving x20 the freshwater consumption of conventional methods;
• Capture fish waste (primarily faeces or any uneaten feed) for repurposing as nutrient-rich agricultural fertiliser to aid crop development;
• Adjust water temperature via heat pumps and exchangers – energy-efficient alternatives to traditional kerosene boilers or electric chillers, with the added ability of recovering heat from waste-water for re-use elsewhere in the growing process.

Elsewhere on the site, further efficiencies are being made via motion sensor LED internal lighting; wind and solar powered external lighting supplied by Autonomous iOt; and electric vehicle charging points to encourage uptake amongst staff.

Provision has also been made for a hydro scheme so that the hatchery can meet more of its energy requirements in a greener way.

Scottish Sea Farms was recently awarded a VIBES Good Practice Award for its successful pilot of a bespoke hybrid power systems aboard one of its feed barges, and it is also among 12 companies shortlisted by VIBES for an Outstanding Achievement Award.