"Major milestone achieved heading into the summer break," Trond Vadset Veibust, CFO of Salmon Evolution ASA, commented on his LinkedIn profile, sharing the news.
Photo: Salmon Evolution.
At the end of June 2024, the Salmon Evolution Phase 2 farming project moved into the construction stage. Now, just one year later, the Norwegian salmon farmer has reached a new milestone in this second phase of constructing its land-based aquaculture facility in Indre Harøy, near Molde, Norway, by connecting it to the ocean.
Through these two new seawater intake pipelines, Salmon Evolution will supply the twelve new Phase 2 tanks with fresh, clean seawater, which is filtered and disinfected at the intake station before entering the facility.
In addition, to ensure optimum water quality, the pipes reach depths of approximately 25 and 95 meters, i.e., even if the water is going to be filtered and disinfected, they make sure to extract it well below the lice layer beforehand.
"This is a crucial step in ensuring the very best water quality for our land-based salmon," the company said in announcing the milestone via a post on its LinkedIn page, in which it also thanked everyone involved in this complex operation. "A great example showing the impact of strong collaboration in action," Salmon Evolution wrote.
Close view of the installation of the two new seawater intake pipelines in Salmon Evolution's land-based aquaculture facility in Indre Harøy.
Following the agreement signed two years ago - also in June, but in 2023 -, to move forward as efficiently as possible, the Indre Harøy Phase 2 project was split into two parts: HENT assumed responsibility for civil design and construction, while Artec Aqua was responsible for the design, construction and commissioning of the process facility, with focus on installing advanced piping systems and assembling process equipment.
Now, with the two new seawater intake pipelines already installed, Andres Thyri, Project Manager at Artec Aqua, also expressed his satisfaction with the completion of this key construction milestone at the Salmon Evolution facility. "It's always exciting when submarine cables are laid. This time too, it went according to plan," he wrote on LinkedIn.
This is the most recent chapter of a collaborative work in which the latest company to join has been EQVA group, which last March announced its participation on the second stage of construction through its companies Austevoll Rørteknikk AS (ART) and BKS Industri AS.
"This project shows what we can achieve when we combine our experiences and professional environments," said Frode Mikal Vågen, CEO of ART, when the collaboration was unveiled.
Previously, in January, Artec Aqua confirmed that Norwegian aquaculture technology company Nordkontakt would provide automation solutions for the Salmon Evolution Phase 2 expansion, and, before that, in October 2024, Cflow had been confirmed to supply fish handling technology for the project.
View of Indre Harøy's project including Phase 2 (the tanks at the top of the image).
Salmon Evolution set a new production record during the first quarter of 2025, recording revenues of almost NOK 50 million and, not least, a standing biomass of 2,939 tonnes LW, which was 45% more than in the previous quarter and a new high for the company.
"Achieving our targeted run-rate biomass is essential for unlocking the full potential at Indre Harøy," then said CEO Trond Håkon Schaug-Pettersen. "With this in place, alongside strong biological performance, we are well-positioned to continue to scale up both production volumes, harvest and harvest weights moving forward."
The next step in that evolution is the completion of construction of the Phase 2 expansion at the company's hybrid flow-through facility, which, as the land-based salmon farmer also said when presenting its Q1 2025 results, is "well underway."
After progressing on schedule during the first quarter, staying on track for the first release of Phase 2 smolts in Q1 2026 and the first harvest in the last quarter of that year, the milestone now achieved, connecting it to the ocean, puts the completion even closer.
Once the second phase expansion is completed, Salmon Evolution expects to increase production capacity from its current 7,900 tonnes to 18,000 tonnes annually, with the final phase expansion aiming to reach 36,000 tonnes by 2026.