Electric link-ups cut farmer’s diesel use by 1m litres
Norwegian salmon farmer Bolaks has reduced its diesel consumption by 1 million litres (22,000 gallons) a year by connecting all its sites to shore power.
The family-owned company, which has 13 sites in the Bjørnafjorden municipality in Vestland county, to the south-east of Bergen, connected its last site in May.
“Now all our sites are operated with renewable energy. With this long-term investment, we now save an annual consumption of 1 million litres of diesel,” chief executive Bjørg Mette Holmefjord told Fish Farming Expert’s Norwegian sister site, Kyst.no.
Increased specialisation
Bolaks, which set new harvest and smolt production records last year, has also advanced in other ways, Holmefjord said.
“We reorganised large parts of the company to ensure good competence development, and increased specialisation of work tasks to provide increased predictability in working hours for our employees,” added Holmefjord. Bolaks also established its own shipping company, BF SJØ.
Bolaks has a strong focus on digitisation in both work processes and communication, said the executive.
“Through ownership in (data technology company) Searis, we are close to the development in (number-crunching app) Clarify and we are now using more and more data from production and the environment to ensure good fish health and production,” she added.
New pens and barges
Bolaks is also investing this year in upgrading its facilities in Bjørnafjorden. Some sites get new pens and others get a new feed barge.
“Investments are being made in single incubation to increase biosecurity in the company’s broodstock and ova production. The largest new acquisition in 2021 is a time charter agreement on a wellboat. Ronja Vest is a top-equipped wellboat that will be Bolaks’ most important tool for improving the fish health of salmon in the Bjørnafjord.”
