Project Summary
The goal of the project is to address the urgent need for sustainable energy solutions in the shipping industry. The decision support tool will enable UK ports to transition towards green energy in an efficient and effective manner, contributing to the country’s efforts to achieve its net-zero emissions target by 2050. The EPSRC DUKFT energy model will provide the framework to analyse each port’s unique requirements and constraints, taking into consideration the type of activities and location. The tool will also offer guidance on investments needed to implement green energy solutions, making the transition accessible to ports of all sizes, including non-cargo ports.
Project Achievements
In collaboration with the University of Plymouth, the project focused on developing a decision support tool for the UK Port industry through achieving four main tasks: investigation of ports and marinas, system design and development, commissioning and testing, and upscaling and dissemination. The project has successfully achieved its primary objective and demonstrated the viability of its concept. At the project’s outset, our existing models and framework were at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 2. Following thorough validation and verification in a real port environment, we are confident that the project has advanced to TRL 5 level. This progress confirms the concept’s viability and positions it for further development and delivery. The decision support framework and tool we’ve developed have undergone rigorous testing, aligning our tool’s outputs with real-world and simulation data gathered during prior studies. Currently,
Conclusions
This project has successfully developed a decision support tool in response to these challenges. This tool is designed to aid ports, harbours, and marinas in making short- term, medium-term, and long-term investment decisions, with the ultimate goal of assuming the role of green energy hubs by the year 2050. The project delved into various decarbonisation options, energy sources, and the comprehensive decarbonisation of the freight transport network. It considered the unique characteristics of each port, harbour, or marina, including operational type, size, capacity, location, and more. Overall, this project has convincingly demonstrated that such a decision support tool can be created to facilitate the decarbonisation efforts. The tool is now ready for further testing; initial tests have validated its accuracy.
Next Steps
launched online, enabling us to gather more data and refine the input-output systems. Moreover, our project has garnered significant interest from industry stakeholders thanks to our effective dissemination efforts. We organised workshops, meetings and engagement events to collect feedback. Several follow-up opportunities are at development opportunities now. The project’s next phase involves creating a comprehensive solutions database and enhancing the tool’s discussions sections. A workshop will be organised for further dissemination, and discussions with industry stakeholders will continue. Additional funding opportunities will be explored to expand the tool’s application beyond the UK. Discussions about further funding and collaborations are ongoing, including a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) and consultancy projects with ports.
