Extension approved for DUAL Ports
Extension approved for DUAL Ports
On the 11thof December 2018, the Steering Committee of the Interreg VB North Sea Region Programme has approved the extension of the DUAL Ports project. This entails that the DUAL Ports project has welcomed six new partners and will be implementing eight new pilot-projects.
6 additional partners from the public and private sector and academia will bring new expertise and experience to the DUAL Ports project. With different backgrounds and different skills, the new partners will bring additional competencies to the project and investigate further into sustainable technologies.
So far, the DUAL Ports project has been able to demonstrate eco-innovative solutions that can reduce the carbon footprint of ports in the North Sea Region and, at the same time, be economically viable. As an example, the LED Pilot realised at the Port of Emden, Germany, has shown a 3% reduction in total costs, but more importantly a staggering 80% carbon emission reduction, compared to conventional lighting.
The SOIL Pilot realised at the Port of Vordingborg, Denmark, has shown a 4% carbon emission reduction and a 10% total investment cost reduction, compared to a ‘non-green’ soil treatment.
These promising results have arisen the interest of external organisations, willing to join the project to test other technologies that, if integrated to the existing ones, could allow ports to be much more sustainable and utilize in some cases even 100% renewable energy sources.
The new pilots in the DUAL Ports extension are all pilots that improve, complement and inter-link with the already existing pilots. The new solutions introduced in the project are motivated by a clear market need to develop new pragmatic and cost-effective technologies, that support ports in their ambition to become more sustainable.
With the addition of 8 new pilots the spectrum of potential environmentally friendly solutions applicable to small and medium sized ports will be broadened and their results evaluated, in order to propose varied alternatives to harbour authorities in the North Sea Region and enable them to make informed decisions on which investments to pursue, considering both environmental and economic argumentations.
The new pilots are deemed to increase the carbon reduction from 10% to 12%, given the fact that some of them are based on the integration of fully renewable energy sources, such as wind, sea, solar and hydrogen. Not only the ports involved, but also the relevant towns will benefit from the cleaner environment, by reducing the public healthcare costs; a reduction that has already been calculated for the foreseen investment at the Port of Skagen, Denmark.
On the 21stof February the DUAL Ports project will host a kick-off meeting for the extension of DUAL Ports. The kick-off will be the first partnership meeting where the new partners will be introduced. Also, a workshop on the possibilities of the use of hydrogen will be conducted.
The new partners are:
- Port of Hvide Sande, Denmark
- Hvide Sande Fjernvarme A.m.b.A, Denmark
- Laminaria BVBA, Belgium
- Uppsala University, Sweden
- Seabased AB, Sweden
- Celtic Cruises LTD, United Kingdom
The new pilots are:
- HEAT– using renewable rest-energy to supply heating
- SEA POWER– demonstrating the potential of wave energy
- WAVE– supplying clean power and using surplus energy
- SEDIMENTS– developing a sustainable concept for removing pollutants
- SAIL CARGO TEST– testing innovative, sustainable cargo transport by sail
- SURFACE– testing new technologies to absorb and reduce emissions
- SMART SECURITY– testing an LED smart signalization system for port operations
- CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME– expanding port staff’s know-how on low carbon solutions and technologies piloted through DUAL Ports
