Date of Award

Spring 2026

Abstract

Most commercial aquaponics facilities fail to achieve profitability, and this challenge is exacerbated in cold climates, where heating, supplemental lighting, and insulated infrastructure inflate operating costs. Existing economic studies are dominated by warm-climate, single-facility cases, offering limited insight into whether cold-climate operators in the eastern United States can achieve profitability through design choices around scale, species selection, and labor optimization. This thesis evaluated the market feasibility of three research facilities (the University of New Hampshire, the University of Maryland, and Ohio State University) and one commercial facility in New Hampshire. The model used a discounted cash flow framework with parameters based on empirical facility data, government and regional market databases, and published literature. Net present value, benefit-cost ratio, and internal rate of return were evaluated at actual and standardized (10,000 kilograms per year) production across three discount rates, with breakeven, sensitivity, and Monte Carlo analyses. Results showed that at actual scale, only the commercial facility approached breakeven; at scaled production, the commercial and Maryland facilities achieved positive net present value, while the others were below breakeven. Plant-side revenue and labor cost dominated sensitivity, suggesting cold-climate aquaponics can be commercially viable, but only at scale and design optimized for profitability.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

First Advisor

Ranjit Bawa

Second Advisor

Bonnie Brown

Third Advisor

John Halstead

Degree Name

Master of Science

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