Fostering sustainable usage of biomass for energy production in the Danube Region and the increase in share of environmentally friendly biomass-transport on the Danube is the main concern of the ENERGY BARGE project.
"Business to business" for more bio energy on the danube, Photo: © viadonau/Zinner
An outstanding feature of the project is its cross-sectoral approach: the project brings together key actors along the entire value chain, stakeholders from the bioenergy industry, Danube ports as well as relevant public authorities and policy stakeholders in order to support transnational know-how transfer and cooperation. Business-to-business (B2B) meetings for the use of synergies between the biomass/bioenergy sector and the Danube logistics sector are an essential element of the project, offering a neutral platform for initiation of new transports on inland waterways.
Using the motto “The Danube – A Stream of Energy”, viadonau and the Port of Vienna organised the first out of five regional business-to-business meetings in the framework of the Danube Business Talks in October 2018. The event successfully connected Danube logistics companies and the bioenergy and biomass sector. With speakers from the companies AGRANA, Münzer Bioindustrie, Bulmarket and the Port of Rotterdam the event featured key companies in the field of European biomass logistics. The B2B matchmaking event this marvelous prelude also offered a favourable framework for strengthening the Danube as a logistics axis for biobased cargo.
After another opportunity for a B2B event at the end of 2018 in Bratislava organized by Slovak Shipping and Ports JSC, in January 2019 the MAHART-Freeport Budapest hosted the third stakeholder conference under the motto „DanuBeGreen“. A port visit and fruitful B2B meetings raised expectations for the next event, to be held in Vukovar, Croatia.
The organisers, Croatian Wood Cluster and Port Authority Vukovar, outreached the expectations of the participants from the logistics and biomass sector from entire Croatia and the Danube region by offering an interesting site visit to a large biomass company “Spačva d.d.” and a great conference programme.
The final B2B event, end of March, hosted by Port of Straubing offered a unique opportunity to round up the B2B meeting series. It featured extraordinary speakers, site visits to key companies in the port area and constructive bilateral business meetings.
In total 200 participants visited the B2B meetings organised in five countries. This number confirms the need for neutral cooperation platforms in the field of Danube logistics to initiate new inland waterway transports and to promote a modal shift towards the Danube waterway. Thus viadonau will foster B2B meetings in future and extend this proven concept to other cargo groups together with international partners.
More information on the ENERGY BARGE project:
www.interreg-danube.eu/approved-projects/energy-barge
