– by AUA
The 8th – and final – Consortium Meeting of the RES4LIVE project was held on June 28, 2024, in Athens, Greece. Co-hosted by the Center for Technology Research & Innovation (CETRI) and the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA), the meeting was conducted in a hybrid format, enabling virtual participation for those unable to attend in person, which facilitated effective communication among all attendees. Over 20 participants represented the 17 RES4LIVE partners. Project Manager, Dimitrios Tyris, (AUA, Greece) provided an overview of the project’s current status and invited the Work Package (WP) leaders to present updates on progress, key achievements, and results within their respective WPs.
With the successful completion of the Work Packages (WPs) focused on adapting innovative renewable energy sources (RES) technologies for livestock farms (WP1), and implementing market-available RES solutions, energy-efficient machinery, and practices for livestock farms (WP2), the meeting’s attention shifted to WP3. CERTH-CPERI shared additional results from the numerical platform developed for energy management and operations optimization, as well as recommended methodological adjustments to improve its performance. The next steps involve further validating the tool by applying it to specific RES4LIVE case studies.
Regarding WP4 (“Implementation and testing of solutions on pilot farms”), following the successful installation and testing of RES systems, the pilot farms analyzed the results from system monitoring. Despite challenges, the monitoring period at the AUA, GOLINELLI, ILVO, and LVAT pilot farms yielded valuable insights into the overall performance of the systems, leading to a number of presentations during the AgEng2024 Conference the following week. AUA then presented the status of WP5, which involves environmental, financial, and social assessments of the RES systems, as well as a technical evaluation of their performance. The ongoing activities since the last consortium meeting were discussed, including the presentation of preliminary results from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) for the reference systems at the farms. Additionally, AUA shared insights into the modelling process of the RES technologies based on their Bills of Materials (BOMs). The next phase will involve comprehensive and detailed modelling and assessment of the project’s interventions. The WP5 discussion concluded with an exploration of the developed questionnaires and the associated data collection process, which are specifically designed to assess the social acceptance of the project’s innovations. For WP6, EAAP presented clustering activities and policy recommendations, while WP7 focused on disseminating, communicating, and exploiting the technological solutions developed under RES4LIVE. The meeting concluded with a WP8 presentation that offered an overview of managerial, technical, and financial matters, including preparations for the completion of the project’s activities in the coming September. Project Coordinator, Dimitris Manolakos, closed the meeting by expressing gratitude for the team’s successful collaboration and their achievements, which aligned with the initial project plan.
© all photos AUA
