How can ports contribute to the energy transition while helping the maritime sector reduce its greenhouse gas emissions? This was one of the key questions explored when the POTENT-X research project recently hosted the conference Decarbonizing Together at the World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden.
The conference gathered researchers, port stakeholders, and other experts to discuss how European ports can evolve into sustainable energy and innovation hubs as part of the transition towards a fossil-free transport system.
“This year’s conference brought together project partners and invited speakers for rich discussions across policy, stakeholder engagement, digitalisation, Living Labs, port operations, and global maritime decarbonisation efforts,” says Sonia Yeh, Professor of Energy and Transport Systems at Chalmers University of Technology and a participant in the project.
Following the conference, POTENT-X has published recordings of several presentations. Visitors can explore talks covering topics such as policy analysis, stakeholder needs and interactions, technical requirements for port digitalisation, and experiences from green port transitions in the Caribbean.
New Reports Highlight Challenges and Opportunities
Two new project reports have also been released.
The report Policy Analysis examines how European policy frameworks support the decarbonisation of maritime transport. The analysis concludes that EU regulations are broadly aligned in supporting the transition, while also highlighting a major challenge: limited access to green hydrogen and e-fuels may become a bottleneck for future progress. The report further shows that conditions for the transition vary considerably across European countries and port regions.
The report Baseline Technical Requirements for Smart Port Digital Infrastructure and System-of-Systems Architecture identifies the digital foundations needed for future smart ports. It defines 30 technical requirements covering areas such as digital twins, cybersecurity, data management and energy-system coordination. The report emphasises that future ports will need to operate as integrated digital ecosystems where multiple actors and systems can interact securely and efficiently.
Together, the reports and conference recordings provide an up-to-date overview of the opportunities and challenges facing European ports as they develop into the energy and innovation hubs of the future.
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POTENT-X website. https://potent-x.eu/
Contacts
- Postdoc, Physical Resource Theory, Environmental and Energy Sciences
- Full Professor, Physical Resource Theory, Environmental and Energy Sciences