SCALING UP NEEDS MORE THAN TECHNOLOGICAL VALIDATION

Pilot projects are only part of the challenge of scaling up cleantech developments, Haavard Tvedte, interim CEO of NCE Maritime CleanTech tells The Motorship in an exclusive interview

The Motorship was fortunate enough to interview Håvard Tvedte, head of public affairs of Norway’s Cluster for Clean Maritime Solutions, Maritime CleanTech in London in late January 2023.

Maritime Cleantech acts as an innovation hub, fostering collaborative projects to help Norway’s maritime sector to reduce emissions from shipping by 50% by 2030.

The organisation sees its role as promoting the development of energy efficiency solutions for existing shipping, and helping academic and industry partners to come together to develop, design and build the zeroemission vessels of the future.

“Our focus extends beyond helping pilot projects to validate newly developed technologies, but we can offer access to the National Catapult test centre, which is extremely important.”

A second focus is on helping newly introduced technologies to scale up once they reach Technology Readiness Level 9. “We have been doing this with electric solutions for smaller vessels operating in Norway. Our aim is to make the technologies internationally viable.”

A Regulatory Focus

“And lastly, we take a keen interest in the development of international regulations, as these create the market conditions for new technologies to enter into the domestic and the international market”.

One example was the introduction of rules mandating emissions free visits by cruise vessels into Norway’s heritage fjords, which had accelerated investments into energy storage systems aboard cruise ships operating in the country. The introduction of hybrid systems into offshore vessels was also stimulated, with the Norwegian government initially contributing to the costs of demonstration projects.

Tvedte noted that the Norwegian government was currently introducing rules that will require vessels serving the Norwegian offshore oil and gas industry to lower their emissions by 2025 and to achieve zero-emissions operations by 2029.

“We believe that we will see the same transformation that has occurred in the Norwegian ferry fleet in the offshore fleet if we can establish the market conditions. This is a prerequisite for innovation to happen.”

TECHNO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

One of the most high-profile projects that Maritime Cleantech has been involved in is the development of hydrogen and ammonia supply chain studies in Norway.

“A great example is Azane’s development of the floating ammonia bunkering stations,” Tvedte said, adding that their many partners are also looking at the development of hydrogen bunkering infrastructure.

Interestingly, this work extends beyond involvement in the verification of the technological solutions, and encompasses techno-economic studies into the total value chain, and also the total investment criteria.

More Than Alternative Fuels

Tvedte was keen to stress that Maritime CleanTech was technology agnostic and did not see its job as “picking winners”, but in promoting a large number of solutions to see which ones will successfully scale up.

The range of technologies being studied by Maritime Cleantech extends from fuel cells to electrification to digitalisation solutions and on to autonomous operations. Autonomous vessels are an area of intense research. One project is examining the efficiencies offered by a small-sized autonomous passenger ferry.

Maritime CleanTech has also been involved in testing fullelectric propulsion solutions. “We have just seen very high efficiency results from one electric propulsion solution after just six months of operation. This high-speed craft carries 150 passengers and has, in tests, reached the speeds of 29 knotsTvedte noted.

While many of the solutions that were being developed were applicable to newbuildings, Maritime CleanTech was also receiving a lot of interest in the development of solutions that could be applied to existing assets.

“We have just started a retrofit study as part of a wider programme to meet the expected demand for solutions from the existing fleet,” Tvedte said.

Outside Interests

Tvedte also noted that Maritime CleanTech was also bringing together technology developers, research institutions and OEMs with financial institutions. “The financial partners are also joining our collaboration activities because they need to be updated on the technologies, and then they can align their investments, both to the new regulations, but also with the technology that's relevant.”

The advantages of this very Norwegian collaborative model is that it also offers small and medium sized technology developers and participants in Norway’s maritime supply chain access to EU or Norwegian calls for applications.

“We have a much broader focus on promoting the commercialisation of technologies beyond the bare technology developments themselves,” Tvedte concluded.

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