Seaweed Solutions

Seaweed Solutions (formerly Seaweed Energy Solutions AS) (SES) is a Norwegian registered company initially focused on large-scale cultivation of seaweed primarily for energy purposes (2009-2013). SES operation focus is in Norway but has also been active in Portugal – the northern and southern extremes of the habitats of the large brown seaweeds in Europe. Since 2014, SES has been changing strategy to incremental and steady technology learning, and planned, designed, built and operated a 100-ton seaweed cultivation pilot in Frøya, Norway, which is a unique installation in Europe. In addition to substantial insight and learning with cultivation technology (several prototypes tested off the coast of Norway), SES has an established breeding centre and nursery running since mid-2012. Thus, SES has proven tests on cultivation systems, using the Patented Seaweed Carrier, and an established selective breeding programme in place.

Pål Bakken

Pål Bakken, SES founder and in-house consultant, has a BSc with honours in finance and marketing. He is an entrepreneur in the aquaculture business, and has been involved in various marine renewable energy projects in Europe. For seven years he was Founder and President of a seafood company in Japan and for five years he was President of Stolt Sea Farm Asia Pacific in Singapore.

Jon Funderud

Jon Funderud, SES CEO, has an MSc in Marine Coastal Development (NTNU, Trondheim, Norway). He spent eight months as an exchange student at the Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute in Qingdao, China working on Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) with field work in Sanggou Bay, one of the world's largest areas of seaweed cultivation. Funderud speaks Norwegian and English.

Frank Neumann

Frank Neumann is an in-house consultant on Marine Technology and Cultivation. He graduated as a Civil Engineer (Dipl.-Ing., Hydraulic Structures, KIT Karlsruhe, Germany) in 1999, and has since then worked in the coastal engineering and ocean wave energy sector in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2014/15, he was responsible for designing, building and operating the sea farm for the SES cultivation pilot.

Kaia Kjølbo Rød

Kaia Kjølbo Rød is a Marine Biologist and Cultivation manager at SES. She has an MSc in Marine Coastal Development (NTNU, Trondheim, Norway) and graduated with a seaweed project about integrated aquaculture (IMTA). She has developed a method to mitigate growth of contaminating microalgae in the initial cultivation stages of seaweed, and is responsible for the lab operations and logistics of SES in Norway.

Role in GENIALG

SES’ main tasks in GENIALG is to lead WP3 (Demonstration of large-scale seaweed farming), and the development of the offshore biomass handling device in particular (detailed design and manufacture by Sintef), as well as the demonstration of the large-scale offshore farming and harvest sequence. Further, SES will participate in WP5 and WP6 to ensure an industry vision on economic projections and ecosystem services. In the dissemination actions, SES contributes via open days of their pilot site and presentations at conferences and the project’s events.