---
id: scenarios/solar-salmon-pen-huar-norte
about:
  label: 'Taking a salmon farm off diesel: Huar Norte, Chile'
  description: >-
    Mowi's Huar Norte salmon site in southern Chile added floating solar and
    batteries in 2025 to cut the diesel its generator burns, with about 57% of
    the site's power expected from the sun. How far can that go, here and at
    other pens with no cable to shore?
  tags:
    - aquaculture
    - salmon
    - floating solar
    - diesel
    - batteries
    - off-grid
scenario:
  place: 'Huar Norte salmon farm, Los Lagos region, Chile'
  since: '2025'
  scale: community
domains:
  - energy
  - food
  - water
relations:
  - predicate: example_of
    target: questions/electrification
provenance:
  origin: agent
  sources:
    - title: First floating solar-powered fish farming pen in Chile (AKVA group)
      url: >-
        https://www.akvagroup.com/news/first-floating-solar-powered-fish-farming-pen-in-chile
    - title: >-
        AKVA, Alotta, and Fjord Maritime partner on solar-powered fish farm for
        Mowi (SalmonBusiness, 6 June 2025)
      url: >-
        https://www.salmonbusiness.com/akva-alotta-and-fjord-maritime-partner-on-solar-powered-fish-farm-for-mowi/
    - title: >-
        Chile's first solar-powered net pen aims to cut aquaculture emissions
        and reduce diesel use (Global Seafood Alliance, 20 June 2025)
      url: >-
        https://www.globalseafood.org/advocate/chiles-first-solar-powered-net-pen-aims-to-cut-aquaculture-emissions-and-reduce-diesel-use/
    - title: Mowi debuts Chilean solar fish farm (World Fishing)
      url: >-
        https://www.worldfishing.net/aquaculture/mowi-debuts-chilean-solar-fish-farm/1509700.article
    - title: >-
        A ring of floating solar around a Chilean salmon farm erased 36,750
        gallons of diesel a year (Ecoportal, 21 August 2026)
      url: 'https://www.ecoportal.net/en/island-chile-floating-solar-panels/28686/'
  created: '2026-10-23'
  reviewed: '2026-10-23'
  reviewed_by: 'Claude, from the sources listed'
  status: draft
---
Salmon pens out at sea run feeders, lights, cameras, oxygen sensors and pumps around the clock, and with no cable to shore that power usually comes from a diesel generator, with fuel brought out by boat.[^5] In mid-2025 Mowi switched on Chile's first floating solar system at a salmon farm, at its Huar Norte site.[^2,3] AKVA group built the pens and fitted the solar panels to them.[^1,4] Alotta Energy supplies the power as a service.[^5] The Norwegian company had already run the same system on the Norwegian coast.[^3] Fjord Maritime provided the batteries and the energy management system.[^4] The companies expect the sun to cover about 57% of the site's power, saving about 139,200 litres of diesel and 350 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.[^1,2,4] These are projections; none of the reports found gives measured results. The site is in the Los Lagos region, on one report.[^5]

## Who needs an answer

- Salmon farm operators, deciding whether to put solar and batteries on other sites, and how big.
- The companies that sell power as a service, sizing systems for sites with different light, weather and loads.
- The crews at the pens, since the system is expected to cut boat runs for fuel and generator noise.

## The domains it chains

Sunlight and weather over a southern Chilean site through the year. The electricity the farm draws hour by hour for feeders, lights, cameras, sensors and pumps. Batteries, with a generator kept as backup. Boats carrying fuel out to the pens.

## What a twin should let people try

- Sizing: how much more panel and battery would take the share from 57% towards all of it, and where the cost stops being worth it?
- Seasons: how far does the share fall in the short days of a southern winter, and what has to run on diesel then?
- Other sites: which farms, given their light, weather and loads, would gain most from the same system?
- After a year: how do the projected savings compare with the diesel the generator burned?

## Where to start

The figures above come from the companies' announcements, through AKVA group's own page.[^1] An energy system model such as [PyPSA](/engines/pypsa-pypsa-eur/) can size generation and storage against an hourly load; the [use case on electrification](/questions/electrification/) lists what else such a model needs.