Audit energetici nel settore della pesca (e-Audit)

The actual panorama of fishing industry is very problematic due to the contemporary action of many factors. Overfishing and the actual economic crisis affect revenues, while the obsolescence of existing fishing vessels which causes high fuel consumption, combined with the continuous rise up of the fuel price increase management costs. So that, for many fishermen there is no profitability at the moment. Due to the impossibility to have influence on the market, fishermen can only try to reduce management costs of their activities, mainly related to the fuel cost and consumption. Actually there is no possibility to replace fishing fleets with new and more efficient constructions due to last European Commission regulations. Fishermen must reduce fuel consumption only by reducing fishing vessels energy usage. The total amount of energy used by a fishing vessel will vary depend on the size (and engineering) of the vessel, weather conditions, type and size of fishing gears, location, skill and knowledge. Furthermore, similar fishing vessels could have different energy usage, due to different engineering solutions such as different hull design and propulsion systems, different propeller type and size, different techniques and tactics. To achieve energy saving on existing fishing vessels a methodological approach is necessary. First of all, it is necessary to define the energy profile of the vessel. Once the energy profile is defined it is possible to state how energy (and the fuel) is used and heavy energy users can be identified. For these energy users technological improvements can be discussed and solution proposed; these solutions must be evaluated also from an economical point of view with a business plan, taking into account economical savings and investment costs. The energetic profile is defined trough an Energy Audit, an engineering test for the monitoring of energy usage during normal fishing activities. An Energy Audit template was conceived and applied to some fishing vessels. The main goal is to define the energetic profiles of the Center Adriatic fishing fleet as a baseline for further analysis, aimed mainly to find and evaluate improvements.