Scottish salmon farmer switching four barges to hybrid power
Loch Duart will reduce CO2e emissions by 600 tonnes per year with Fjord Maritime technology
Scottish salmon farmer Loch Duart has ordered four feed barge hybrid power systems from Norwegian company Fjord Maritime.
The systems, which will be retrofitted to existing barges, are expected to reduce Loch Duart’s CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions by approximately 600 tonnes per year as well as reducing fuel consumption and noise from diesel generators.
Fjord Maritime, which has also supplied its technology to Cooke Aquaculture Scotland, said the state-of-the-art systems will modernise Loch Duart’s barges, adding extra redundancy when it comes to stable and secure power supply.
Loch Duart will also be able to use the big data collected through Fjord Maritime’s monitoring platform Fjord Control to further optimise energy consumption and produce fish in an even more sustainable way.
Steve Burns, Fjord Maritime’s recently appointed managing director for Chile and the UK, said: “We are proud to be chosen by Loch Duart to partner their commitment to low impact farming. Our hybrid technology and system monitoring platform will ensure that Loch Duart are leading the way in carbon footprint reduction in the Scotland.”
180-plus systems sold
The Fjord Hybrid system comprises a bank of batteries and sophisticated controls. The batteries are charged with excess power from a barge’s diesel generator. The battery bank can then be used instead of the generator for much of the time, reducing fuel consumption and saving wear and tear on the generator.
Loch Duart already has a purpose-built hybrid barge and the conversion of four existing barges will make it Scotland’s leader in the field. The retrofits will be carried out in July, August, and October.
The contract with Loch Duart will take the number of Fjord Maritime hybrid systems in use to more than 180 worldwide.
Loch Duart produces around 6,000 tonnes of salmon a year at farms in Sutherland and the Outer Hebrides, and last year acquired five sites in Skye from Scotland’s second largest salmon producer, Scottish Sea Farms. The new sites, which require re-equipping, have a combined maximum allowed biomass of 9,694 tonnes.
