Working together on green innovation

8. December 2020

Shipping ought to become climate neutral, and we need more renewable energy in many more sectors in order to achieve our climate goals. Thus, MARLOG, the cluster organisation for the maritime business and logistics, and Energy Cluster Denmark, the cluster organisation for the entire energy sector, are now entering into a new strategic partnership on the green transport of the future.

The maritime industry and the transport and logistics sector both need greener energy, and renewable energy production naturally seeks the next customers. This makes co-operation between the sectors obvious, and therefore the two cluster organisations in the sectors have now expressed a clear, common ambition to create a platform for the technological work with the transition to a greener transport sector:

“Together, we must be the framework for the innovation that makes it possible to spread and utilise green energy even better – among other things by supporting sector coupling and developing green fuels for transport and in the maritime industry. We must be the innovation platform that technologically drives the sector coupling and the green transition forward together with the entire energy sector and the new markets. It requires a close strategic collaboration with the transport sector’s innovation cluster and therefore a closer collaboration with MARLOG is an important choice for us,” says Glenda Napier, CEO of Energy Cluster Denmark.

The potential in reducing CO2 emissions in the transport sector is enormous, says Mikkel Navarro Hansen, director of MARLOG:

“There is a huge potential for reduction in the entire transport sector, which accounts for 28 percent of Denmark’s greenhouse gas emissions. If we look at international shipping, Danish and Danish-controlled ships emit approximately DKK 53 million tonnes – this is on a par with all of Denmark’s emissions. So, there is a huge potential in a transition. Denmark is one of the world’s largest maritime and energy nations, and therefore there is great potential for creating synergies. A potential that can get Denmark in the lead when it comes to e.g., maritime technologies and climate-friendly transport solutions,” says Mikkel Navarro Hansen.

Huge need for investment

Increased collaboration on innovation between the members of the two cluster organisations also makes sense based on the investment profile that is a prerequisite for emission-free shipping. The transport sector both on land and at sea has significant experience with switching from one fuel to another – e.g., LNG, which is used by both ships and trucks. It requires a development process that includes technology, infrastructure, legislation, and security. The experience must be used so that members’ challenges and opportunities come into play.

“Analyses have shown that only 13 percent of the investment need for CO2-neutral ship transport is related to the ships. It is estimated that just over 87 percent of the investment is about producing fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia and having it stored and distributed in the form of new production facilities such as refineries, new infrastructure to transport the fuels to the ships and storage space for storage. Thus, it is obvious that we collaborate more with those who will drive the development of production facilities and storage – and that is the energy sector. The energy infrastructure on land and in the country’s ports must be upgraded so that it will be able to handle the new types of fuels,” says Mikkel Navarro Hansen.

The new strategic collaboration is about building the value chain that connects the technological needs of the two clusters:

“Denmark is a world leader in the production of renewable energy, and the electrification of our society requires that renewable energy be spread directly or indirectly from the energy sector to other sectors in Denmark in order to achieve our 2030 goal. We must scale and reduce costs with technologies that enable the use of renewable energy throughout society, e.g., power-to-x technologies. In Denmark, we already have a number of leading companies working with technology development in the area. It is therefore quite obvious to match technology development and market development across our two clusters and contribute to us connecting two strong sectors together for the common benefit and development of Denmark and the rest of the world,” says Glenda Napier.

New event manifests the collaboration

As one of the first initiatives, MARLOG and Energy Cluster Denmark are arranging an online event on 15 December 2020 at 9:30 am – 3:00 pm about the maritime and logistics supply chain for the wind sector.