A 3-day meeting to get the project on Track
The project ICARE4FARMS is part of Interreg NWE’s priority Low Carbon and intends to boost the use of solar thermal energy (STE) in farming in the North West Europe (NWE) region, to contribute to reduce GHG emissions and increase the share of renewable energies. Beginning of March 2020, the project partners came together in Lille to launch the project.
Wednesday 11th March: On the field
The meeting starts with a field visit in the North of France to 2 calves’ farms that benefit from a Next generation Solar Thermal Energy System to heat their high demand of water.
In order to boost the use of STE in farming and demonstrate it can be efficient enough in the NWE regions, the project will set up 4 pilots in 4 different countries, for 4 different activities: a calves’ farm in France; a greenhouse in the UK and two other pilots in Belgium and the Netherlands, that are still to be identified.
Not only partners attend the field visits, but also a farmer and two installers from the Netherlands in order to have a look at the installation and eventually participate as Dutch pilot within the project.
With our feet in the mud, we discover the STE installation of Partner FENGTECH in the farm of Mr Poulain that breeds 310 calves and uses 3000L of hot water/day. The 12 units are saving 50 000 kWh/year. The second farm owned by the family Lecigne, has 723 calves. The 26 units are heating 6500 L of water each day which leads to save 110 000 kWh/year.
Thursday 12th March and Friday 13th March: Partners presentation, Management of the project and Work Package presentations.
Partners have the opportunity to say a few words on their organization and their role within the project. The project is led by Laval Mayenne Technopole and gathers 8 other partners from 5 different countries in North-West Europe. Meet the Patners
The meeting moves on with the presentation of the work packages. The project is composed of 6 work packages: 3 WP dedicated to implementation and 3 dedicated to support the activities and coordinate the project:
- WP1 Transnational Assessment of Next Generation STE systems
- WP2 Demonstration of Next Generation of STE systems
- WP3 Deployment of Next Generation STE systems
- WP Long term
- WP Communication
- WP Project management
Last but not least: share moments together
A successful project lays also in the quality of relationship between partners. The kick-off meeting was the opportunity to spend some nice moments together to better know each other. Ice breakers, guided tour in the city and enjoying lovely restaurants in Lille were part of this excellent meeting.
