PROJECT LEADER
AFFILIATION
Margo Consulting
START DATE
April 2024
END DATE
Nov 2025
DURATION
20 months
PROJECT IN BRIEF
Seafood Industry Australia (SIA) and the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre have joined forces to deliver FRDC project 2023-080: Alternative energy solutions for aquaculture supported by funding from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation on behalf of the Australian Government.
Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production sector globally, accounting for more than half of all fish consumed by humans. Aquaculture production has also become a thriving industry in Australia in recent years. This growing industry contributes to the emissions of greenhouse gases through land and sea-based operations. The challenge is to work through the practices and technologies available to reduce the carbon footprint and work through the solutions to transition the industry.
There is a need to support scoping, costing and development of renewable energy solutions to support operation of aquaculture operations in a variety of contexts where solutions are not yet available.
Broader adoption of renewable energy alternatives by Australia’s aquaculture industry would likely reduce operating costs and improve reliability in some contexts in the long-term, however existing solutions are not applicable in all use cases, and adoption of existing technologies is not being adequately incentivized.
This collaboration will bring together the full spectrum of the aquaculture industry, along with the nation’s leading blue economy research and commercial teams. This project is targeted at establishing a suite of tools and industry-inclusive activities to build industry wide capacity while also providing options for ready implementation by early adopters and early movers.
Principal Technical Advisors
- Angela Williamson, BECRC
- Julie Petty, SIA
- Irene Penesis, BECRC
- Amy White, ERM
Project Aims
- Understand challenges facing the aquaculture sector relating to a changing climate, building resilience and accelerating decarbonisation
- Determine opportunities to respond to those challenges, and validate solutions
- Engage with industry leaders and innovators to explore and validate viable, feasible and scalable options towards climate resilience
- Demonstrate rapid and practical progress towards climate resilience and elements of SIA’s Our Pledge
- Build partnerships and relationships with national and global leaders to enable advancement of prioritised solutions that will enable improved climate resilience and provide a wholistic decarbonisation decision platform as the aquaculture industry builds its climate resilience.
This project will provide a wholistic decarbonisation decision platform as the aquaculture industry builds its climate resilience and will offer both a ‘one stop shop’ approach for viable available options, as well as emerging solutions that are forecast.
Pathways to Impact
The project will provide Government with recommendations on industry wide areas of support and funding including:
IMPACT 1 | Pathway to reduce diesel usage
IMPACT 2 | Pathway to increase electrification
IMPACT 3 | Pathway to test novel renewable energy sources
IMPACT 4 | Pathway to build resilience into financial cap ex and op ex forecasting
Help Shape the Future of Energy Use in Australian Aquaculture
We need your help!
As the next stage of the FRDC 2023-080 Alternate energy solutions for aquaculture: A Seafood Industry Australia + Blue Economy CRC Collaboration Project, the Project Team are gathering information about energy use across Australian aquaculture to find practical ways to reduce energy costs and carbon emissions.
This information will support the development of a Sectoral Energy Consumption Profile for each Australian aquaculture industry sector and the finalisation of draft Technical Readiness Assessments for each production stage/operational module.
What We Need From You?
Your input to a short survey against 27 questions covering:
- Your business size and operations
- How you use energy
- Any green energy projects you’ve tried
- Your current energy-tracking methods
Why This Matters?
- Help find cost-effective energy solutions for our industry
- Identify common challenges we all face
- Share successful approaches that are working
- Support industry-wide planning
- Inform recommendations for policy and regulatory reform
- Guide future investment opportunities
Who Should Complete This?
Members of:
- Australian Prawn Farmers Association
- Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Industry Association
- Australian Barramundi Farmers Association
- Oysters Australia
- Aquaculture Council of Western Australia
- Australian Abalone Growers Association
- Salmon Tasmania
Important Notes
- This is about industry-wide patterns, not individual businesses
- Your data will be combined with others – individual responses stay private
- If you have multiple operation types, you can fill out separate surveys for each
- If that’s too much work, one survey for your whole operation is fine
Your input will help us target action and future investment on what energy solutions work best for Australian aquaculture and how to support your readiness to adopt these.
Responses to the survey are requested by 28 February 2025.
Please return completed surveys to your peak body, or email Simon.Willcox@blueeconomycrc.com.au.
If you have any questions, please contact Simon.Willcox@blueeconomycrc.com.au.
From our partners
“Sustainability has always been at the heart of Huon’s operations and underpins our endeavour to produce the highest quality products to feed the world. Sustainable business practices are essential for the longevity of our industry, and we recognise the importance of continuing to improve our operations to meet the changing expectations and needs of our consumers, the community and the environment in which we farm.”
“As Australia’s leading seafood producer, Tassal Group has a decade long dedicated sustainability program that includes a comprehensive and inclusive program of work and reporting on its carbon footprint, as well as efforts to reduce carbon emissions. We look forward to working with SIA as Australia’s peak seafood association and the BE CRC as Australia’s leading offshore energy research body and their members on this important work.”
“Yumbah believes that aquaculture is uniquely placed to provide a sustainable protein source to feed a growing world population, and within the broader industry we are seeking to develop Yumbah as Australia’s leading shellfish aquaculture company to develop the importance of shellfish within this mix. However, whilst we recognise that our sustainable use of water to grow food is an advantage, this is only one piece of the environmental footprint and the carbon reduction targets are increasingly a priority on our planning radar.
Yumbah is supportive of this proposal and is keen to explore an active role working with SIA, Blue Economy CRC and FRDC in progressing the understanding of and paths to achieve decarbonisation of Australian aquaculture.”
“This project allows the Australian aquaculture industries to demonstrate their willingness and ability to decarbonise their operations. It will lay the platform for their climate resilience and allow them to road test new and emerging electrification technologies. The project builds on from Climate Resilient Wild Catch Fisheries FRDC 2021-089 and aims to offer a similar one-stop-shop for aquaculture enterprises who are looking to pursue a pathway forward for their business with less of a reliance on fossil fuels.”
Complete the form below to join the mailing list for this specific project.
FUNDED BY:
Seafood Industry Australia (SIA) and the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre have joined forces to deliver FRDC project 2023-080: Alternative energy solutions for aquaculture supported by funding from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation on behalf of the Australian Government.
Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production sector globally, accounting for more than half of all fish consumed by humans. Aquaculture production has also become a thriving industry in Australia in recent years. This growing industry contributes to the emissions of greenhouse gases through land and sea-based operations. The challenge is to work through the practices and technologies available to reduce the carbon footprint and work through the solutions to transition the industry.
There is a need to support scoping, costing and development of renewable energy solutions to support operation of aquaculture operations in a variety of contexts where solutions are not yet available.
Broader adoption of renewable energy alternatives by Australia’s aquaculture industry would likely reduce operating costs and improve reliability in some contexts in the long-term, however existing solutions are not applicable in all use cases, and adoption of existing technologies is not being adequately incentivized.
This collaboration will bring together the full spectrum of the aquaculture industry, along with the nation’s leading blue economy research and commercial teams. This project is targeted at establishing a suite of tools and industry-inclusive activities to build industry wide capacity while also providing options for ready implementation by early adopters and early movers.
Principal Technical Advisors
- Angela Williamson, BECRC
- Julie Petty, SIA
- Irene Penesis, BECRC
- Amy White, ERM
Project Aims
- Understand challenges facing the aquaculture sector relating to a changing climate, building resilience and accelerating decarbonisation
- Determine opportunities to respond to those challenges, and validate solutions
- Engage with industry leaders and innovators to explore and validate viable, feasible and scalable options towards climate resilience
- Demonstrate rapid and practical progress towards climate resilience and elements of SIA’s Our Pledge
- Build partnerships and relationships with national and global leaders to enable advancement of prioritised solutions that will enable improved climate resilience and provide a wholistic decarbonisation decision platform as the aquaculture industry builds its climate resilience.
This project will provide a wholistic decarbonisation decision platform as the aquaculture industry builds its climate resilience and will offer both a ‘one stop shop’ approach for viable available options, as well as emerging solutions that are forecast.
Pathways to Impact
The project will provide Government with recommendations on industry wide areas of support and funding including:
IMPACT 1 | Pathway to reduce diesel usage
IMPACT 2 | Pathway to increase electrification
IMPACT 3 | Pathway to test novel renewable energy sources
IMPACT 4 | Pathway to build resilience into financial cap ex and op ex forecasting
Help Shape the Future of Energy Use in Australian Aquaculture
We need your help!
As the next stage of the FRDC 2023-080 Alternate energy solutions for aquaculture: A Seafood Industry Australia + Blue Economy CRC Collaboration Project, the Project Team are gathering information about energy use across Australian aquaculture to find practical ways to reduce energy costs and carbon emissions.
This information will support the development of a Sectoral Energy Consumption Profile for each Australian aquaculture industry sector and the finalisation of draft Technical Readiness Assessments for each production stage/operational module.
What We Need From You?
Your input to a short survey against 27 questions covering:
- Your business size and operations
- How you use energy
- Any green energy projects you’ve tried
- Your current energy-tracking methods
Why This Matters?
- Help find cost-effective energy solutions for our industry
- Identify common challenges we all face
- Share successful approaches that are working
- Support industry-wide planning
- Inform recommendations for policy and regulatory reform
- Guide future investment opportunities
Who Should Complete This?
Members of:
- Australian Prawn Farmers Association
- Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Industry Association
- Australian Barramundi Farmers Association
- Oysters Australia
- Aquaculture Council of Western Australia
- Australian Abalone Growers Association
- Salmon Tasmania
Important Notes
- This is about industry-wide patterns, not individual businesses
- Your data will be combined with others – individual responses stay private
- If you have multiple operation types, you can fill out separate surveys for each
- If that’s too much work, one survey for your whole operation is fine
Your input will help us target action and future investment on what energy solutions work best for Australian aquaculture and how to support your readiness to adopt these.
Responses to the survey are requested by 28 February 2025.
Please return completed surveys to your peak body, or email Simon.Willcox@blueeconomycrc.com.au.
If you have any questions, please contact Simon.Willcox@blueeconomycrc.com.au.
From our partners
“Sustainability has always been at the heart of Huon’s operations and underpins our endeavour to produce the highest quality products to feed the world. Sustainable business practices are essential for the longevity of our industry, and we recognise the importance of continuing to improve our operations to meet the changing expectations and needs of our consumers, the community and the environment in which we farm.”
“As Australia’s leading seafood producer, Tassal Group has a decade long dedicated sustainability program that includes a comprehensive and inclusive program of work and reporting on its carbon footprint, as well as efforts to reduce carbon emissions. We look forward to working with SIA as Australia’s peak seafood association and the BE CRC as Australia’s leading offshore energy research body and their members on this important work.”
“Yumbah believes that aquaculture is uniquely placed to provide a sustainable protein source to feed a growing world population, and within the broader industry we are seeking to develop Yumbah as Australia’s leading shellfish aquaculture company to develop the importance of shellfish within this mix. However, whilst we recognise that our sustainable use of water to grow food is an advantage, this is only one piece of the environmental footprint and the carbon reduction targets are increasingly a priority on our planning radar.
Yumbah is supportive of this proposal and is keen to explore an active role working with SIA, Blue Economy CRC and FRDC in progressing the understanding of and paths to achieve decarbonisation of Australian aquaculture.”
“This project allows the Australian aquaculture industries to demonstrate their willingness and ability to decarbonise their operations. It will lay the platform for their climate resilience and allow them to road test new and emerging electrification technologies. The project builds on from Climate Resilient Wild Catch Fisheries FRDC 2021-089 and aims to offer a similar one-stop-shop for aquaculture enterprises who are looking to pursue a pathway forward for their business with less of a reliance on fossil fuels.”
Complete the form below to join the mailing list for this specific project.
FUNDED BY:
PROJECT PARTNERS
