In May 2023, at SalMar’s new hatchery in Tjuin, at the northern end of Steinkjer Municipality, a juvenile salmon weighing just over a quarter of a kilo flicked its tail and left its first year of life behind. It was to be the first of many.
Business
Circular innovation
SalMar’s new hatchery facility at Tjuin.
In 2025, roughly another 20 million smolt left the grow-out facility run by production manager Ove Martin Grøntvedt and his team at Tjuin, one of the world’s most advanced and sustainable hatcheries, where new standards are being set with regard to the circular economy.
That is a massive number, the equivalent of around 4,000 tonnes of mature salmon, but they have also had a massive facility in which to grow up. About the size of 100 Norwegian detached houses, spread over up to three storeys. Enough to make a free-range chicken green with envy.
Nevertheless, it is not its size that is the hatchery’s most impressive feature, despite its two starter-feeding departments, equal number of fry departments and three on-growing sections. You might call it a kindergarten if it were not for the extreme levels of cleanliness, the staff in white protective overalls and the built-in health centre. When the time comes to be vaccinated, the fish are anaesthetised, get a little prick and are back in the water in less than 30 seconds. It is an impressive sight.
“Fish in the wild may not be vaccinated, but we do our best to ensure that the little fish grow up in surroundings that are as natural as possible – from the moment they hatch to their transfer to the sea.”
Raised on sea farms
Ole Martin Grøntvedt knows what he is talking about. His uncles, Sivert and Ove, were rightly honoured as pioneers of Norwegian aquaculture in Kvarv’s 2023 annual report, and Ole Martin’s father was not far behind when he started fish farming in Frøya in 1970.
-“So yes, I have pretty much grown up on sea farms,” smiles Ole Martin, who has worked for SalMar since 2009, primarily in production management, but also with facility design and engineering.
A lot has happened in the business since it took its first steps some 50 years ago. Few facilities demonstrate this more clearly than the hatchery in Tjuin. To minimise its environmental footprint, the facility uses Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) technology, which slashes freshwater consumption by over 97 per cent compared with traditional systems. The sludge that is generated during the process is collected and can be used for the production of biogas or for soil improvement. And that is exactly the plan.
SalMar and Antec Biogas have set up a biogas facility which, apart from producing energy itself, will use the waste from the hatchery and manure from local farmers to produce biogas. The residual waste from biogas production will, in turn, be used as fertiliser. In a world that is focusing increasingly on the use of vast quantities of fertiliser to grow the crops needed to raise cattle for red meat, here is something that does the exact opposite. Plant fertiliser from protein production in a circular system.
Solar energy and surplus heat
“I’m pretty proud of what we are about to achieve here. Not just in terms of production, biology and fish health, but also from a sustainability perspective,” says Grøntvedt, who underlines that both school classes and other visitors can come and see with their own eyes how production takes place. The sustainability aspect is clearly evident on the energy side.
20%
The new solar power plant should in theory be able to supply 20% of the facility’s energy needs.
“Just a few weeks ago, we put a new solar power system into operation. In theory, it will be able to supply 20 per cent of the facility's energy requirement. In addition, there’s the surplus heat, which has even greater potential. We exist in a symbiosis with NipponGas, which is located next door. They receive the cooling water they need for their processes from us, then send it back when it has heated up. In theory, the combination of solar power and surplus heat should meet upwards of half the hatchery’s overall energy needs.
Billion-dollar investments
The workforce in Tjuin is not huge – just 32 employees. Grøntvedt is particularly pleased with those who have been recruited, also those from sectors other than aquaculture. Yet, the ripple effects from the investment and its value creation are not insignificant. The hatchery alone cost more than NOK 1.5 billion, and it has been estimated that a further NOK 1 billion could be added to that figure if other investments in the area in the wake of the facility's establishment are taken into account.
That is more than three times Steinkjer Municipality's annual operating budget.
