A group of nine people from six countries (Sweden, Estonia, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Denmark) travelled to the Italian island of Sicily between 27 – 31 of March to attend the Second NESOI Erasmus Short Study Tour (SST2), which was hosted by the Port Authority of the Strait of Messina.
Details about the programme:
The main topic of NESOI SST2 were decarbonisation of ports and clean boats. However, the emphasis of the Study Tour was on the exchange of best practices among the different actors and islands. In addition, the aim as also to foster the dialogue between NESOI islands and the community in order to identify opportunities for replication.
In addition to the Port Authority of the Strait of Messina, there were another three main collaborators during the SST2: The Università degli Studi Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, who is currently involved in research projects on clean energies and carbon emission control; the Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l'energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenible (ENEA), who presented the work that has been made in the Pilot Island of Salina, and the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), who introduced two projects related to green boats.
The agenda for each day focused on these purposes:
Objectives of Day 1:
· Understanding the situation of the energy landscape in the Strait of Messina and the energy landscape of the island.
· Introduction of the energy planning methodology and enable the exchange good practices in this field.
· Learn more about energy strategy and different application of hydrogen and biofuel.
Objectives of Day 2:
· Learn more about marine renewable technologies.
· Explore pathways to clean boats, executed projects and research.
Objectives of Day 3:
· Presentation of the NEF platform and its opportunities for investible energy transition projects and e-learning material
More than a knowledge exchange
The idea of the study tour started by the need of fostering knowledge exchange related to energy transition topics among the islands that, due to their special geographical situation, can be particularly challenging. NESOI strives for the replication of best practices, and the study tour provided a space for discussion among interested stakeholders.
The major goals of this tour were to promote potential NESOI methodology replications and to motivate and stimulate the island's players to share their expertise and best practices with project beneficiaries and the community. This ensured the showcase of best practices, to improve project development capacity and boost the networking, which is ultimately what will enable all this to become a reality.
Like in the previous occasion, this experience also counted on special visits related to the topics being discussed during the traditional sessions. In this case, the group had the chance to visit the Marine Energy Labs at the University of Reggio Calabria, where the researchers are working directly on the strait!
Once more, we would like to thank our colleagues from R2M Solution for the organisation and coordination of this stay!