A floating, multi-layered facility, combining aquaculture, hydroponics and photovoltaics, is the brainchild of a Spanish company, Forward Thinking Architecture. The floating farm can be located close to areas where food is most needed and can potentially become automated Farm Clusters.
The project is flexible and the scale can be adapted to local food production needs and can be located close to many mega-cities or densly populated areas with water access .
The Smart Offshore Floating Farming system (SFF) consist of three main levels. The ground level contains offshore fish farms, external perimeter wave barriers and protection, water access points, storage, slaughterhouse, an advanced technology desalination plant and packaging facility.
The first floor comprises a greenhouse with automated vertically stacked hydroponic systems, irrigation control system, and microclimate control (temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, lighting, etc.) for crop cultivation.
The rooftop level holds a photovoltaic plant fort self-sufficiency, with skylight openings to ensure natural light for the plants, and rainwater collectors.
The SFF will float on the sea using floating pontoons. Since the aquaculture in the SFF project will take place in a protected closed environment(sliding panels), exposure to wind and wave action can be prevented. In addition, servicing of these cages will be much more efficient. Cages are placed between the main corridors and are split into many smaller cages. This is done to increase the number of batches of fish per year, and therefore sustaining an on-going output of fish.
The main cages are 75 meters by 85 meters by 3 meters each, or 19.125 meters cubed, resulting in a total space of 133.875 meters cubed dedicated for fish farming within the SFF.
The aquaculture level includes a hatchery where eggs are incubated and hatched. In addition to the hatchery, the aquaculture level will house a fish processing plant and a storage room where the fish will be kept for a short period of time until they are ready to be shipped to shore.
Preliminary annual production figures for a 200X 350-meter side module are 8.152 tons of vegetables and 1.703 tons of fish.
