The third EWEAS project meeting was held in Kranj, Slovenia 11-12th February 2020. We were kindly welcomed by our gracious hosts and EWEAS partners Miha Štular and Mitja Kadoič of KGZS, Slovenian Chamber of Forestry and Agriculture. The main topics of discussion were the outline module content developed by the technical team at SGS TECNOS, Madrid and the plans for the e-learning platform being developed by BEFO, Riga during the final stage of the project. The modules will provide an essential resource for aquaculture professionals to learn how to benchmark and improve the energy and water efficiency of their aquaculture systems, including estimation of the economic benefit of such improvements. The e-learning platform will make this resource easily accessible in an engaging way. Participants in the e-learning course will receive a certificate after they have successfully completed the course to demonstrate that they have gained important knowledge and skills of value to their aquaculture organisations.
During the second day of the meeting the project team was fortunate to benefit from a tour of aquaculture facilities local to Kranj. We learned that aquaculture in Slovenia is mostly small-scale river-fed fish farms and saw the developing energy efficiency measures already being planned, for example in the form of Solar-PV systems being used to shade fish from summer sun whilst partially meeting the energy needs of the facilities.
