THE EDIT
Your monthly briefing on the journey to fossil freedom
Issue #25, Co-use of space, August 2025
Samuel L. Jackson is fronting the new Vattenfall campaign highlighting that wind farms can do more than just produce fossil free electricity. They can grow snacks out there too! Photo: Vattenfall
How wind farms are now yielding so much more
What to know: Growing seaweed and cultivating mussels could become as natural as producing fossil-free electricity at offshore wind farms. That’s what researchers are testing at two of Vattenfall's offshore wind farms: Kriegers Flak in the Baltic Sea an Vesterhav Syd in the Danish North Sea.
Why it matters: WIN@sea could reshape how we think about offshore infrastructure. Not only is the project showing that multi-use of infrastructure and space is possible, it’s also yielding insight into the ecological impacts, practical challenges, and economic opportunities of combining energy and food production. With new licensing rules demanding environmental accountability, this kind of integrated thinking might become the norm.
Seaweed harvest at Vattenfall's Vesterhav Syd wind farm. Mads Hecter, owner of Kerteminde Seafarm. Photo: Vattenfall
Meet the farmer turning wind farms into seaweed fields
Seaweed farmer Mads Hecter is testing how food and energy production can co-exist in the sea around offshore wind farms. It can reduce ocean acidification, remove excess nutrients, and serve as a raw material for everything from seaweed snacks to bio-based packaging
Seaweed can be used in food production, clothing, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and a variety of other applications. Best of all, it is easy to farm and requires no fertilisers or pesticides. In the past ten years, seaweed production has more than doubled and now amounts for 35 million tonnes annually. 98 per cent of it is farmed (worldwildlife.org).
These “motherf*ckin’ wind farms” can do more than produce fossil-free electricity
Photo: Vattenfall
Iconic actor Samuel L. Jackson is fronting a new campaign with Vattenfall to reframe how we think about offshore wind farms. The social justice advocate, who once studied marine biology, wants you to know that these “motherf*ckin’ wind farms” can do more than produce fossil-free electricity, for example serve as the base for a brand-new snack
News flash
3 x quick updates from the energy world
Data centres in numbers
How much energy are data centres consuming right now? How much will they consume in the future? Where are they located? These four diagrams will tell you everything you need to know about data centres. (technologyreview.com)
Springtime for fossil-free energy
No matter how hard some might try, the fossil-free revolution cannot be stopped. This March marked the first month in US history that clean energy surpassed fossil fuels on the American grid. (canarymedia.com)
Working in a solar mine
Since 2020, 312 surface coal mines have been closed in the UK. If converted into solar power plants, they could add almost 300 GW of renewable capacity by 2030, according to a new report from Global Energy Monitor. (theguardian.com)
And finally …
As cool as a cucumber
By using excess water from a nearby geothermal power plant, Japanese farmers in Hokkaido have been able to grow tomatoes and cucumbers year-round. The hot water is used to heat greenhouses, and geothermal heating has dramatically reduced heating costs compared with fossil fuel alternatives, writes Think Geoenergy.
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