DNV outlines a port strategy for transition to renewable energy

Det Norske Veritas (DNV), the Norwegian maritime class society, has issued a report outlining renewable energy strategies for European ports that has implications for U.S. ports.

A DNV spokesman said that electrification of maritime ports using renewable energy installation will not only reduce air pollution, and fossil fuel emissions, but will also reduce power costs for harbor trucks and terminal equipment to 33% of the cost of conventional diesel fuel. 

The report “Ports: Green Gateways to Europe” features “10 transitions to turn ports into decarbonization hubs” and was written in cooperation with Eurelectric, an association of power suppliers. 

Jennifer States, director of blue economy, DNV GL Energy and Maritime, based in Seattle, told AJOT that a collaboration with Tacoma Power and the Port of Tacoma supports a project to develop hydrogen gas using renewable energy sources. This will then be used to power terminal equipment, trucks and clean shore power for ships arriving at the Port. Otherwise, ships would utilize polluting diesel marine engines to provide electricity when at berth.

States provided background that described the process:

Construction of a “maritime hydrogen ecosystem through a project at the Port of Tacoma that demonstrates the concept of a port-based hydrogen (H2) solution utilizing Formic Acid for lower cost and safer storage and movement. 

This demonstration features a system that creates a liquid H2 carrier, formic acid, directly from green renewable electricity, water and recycled CO2. This unique technology is provided by two of the partners: OCO Inc., whose electrolyzer technology creates the formic acid as a liquid H2 carrier and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, that provides a reformer technology to decompose and release the H2 from formic acid when needed. 

Tacoma Power will provide the green electricity, which comes primarily from hydroelectricity and is 97% carbon free. They will also be the end user of the H2, to generate energy on demand for cold-ironing (shore power) services to berthed vessels. 

DNV GL will provide techno-economic modeling so that this demo can be used to provide the anchor application for scaling-out hydrogen use in other maritime applications like hydrogen fueling for trucks, trains, vessels and a wide variety of cargo handling applications.” 

States said that plans for a mobile unit to provide shore power for ships at berth at the Port of Tacoma would avoid building a substation to provide shore power for ships at a savings of millions of dollars.

The success of the project “depends on a multi-stakeholder cooperation to make this a win-win situation,” she said.

In the DNV report, the challenge for power companies and utilities is to start thinking outside the box:

“The electricity sector can play an important role…. if it manages to look beyond electricity. Not only because ports are economically very important, but also because it will require the development of skills and competences that eventually will be required in other industrial areas.  Electricity generation and electricity demand will continue to become much more integrated in the operation of industry and other infrastructures and energy vectors. … However, if the electricity sector manages to rise to this task it can become an active and responsive participant in creating energy ecosystems around ports. This will strengthen the position of electricity as a universal energy carrier and will have a huge dividend far beyond ports.”

States said that the $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives but opposed by Republicans in the U.S. Senate includes funding for ports to make climate change related investments: “There’s a slight modification to the Climate Smart Ports act which reduces the federal share to 70% from 80%.  But the good news is it’s in the final House bill and should pass the House this week.”

Jillis Raadschelders, business director energy transition DNV GL, based in Rotterdam, said the Port of Rotterdam proposes a mobile shore power unit, similar to the Port of Tacoma. The Port is looking to deploy a floating barge that will provide electricity to ships at berth powered by LNG.

The report notes the potential of ports to support and supply offshore wind farms:

“…. ports are vital for the development of offshore wind … to support the construction and operation activities of the offshore wind farms. Not only the installed capacity of wind turbines, but also the size of individual wind turbines will significantly increase. To manufacture and transport the materials needed for these large wind turbines, large lay-down areas and heavy lift equipment is required, at locations close to the shore. The only logical locations to do this are ports. This raises opportunities for ports to contribute to the offshore wind manufacturing industry, but also imposes large technical challenges. It requires efficient design and infrastructure of ports to deal with the storage, assembly and (un)loading of the components prior to the offshore wind installation. 4C offshore, a market research organization focused on offshore wind, identified 46 European ports that are suitable for assembling offshore wind turbines. Some examples are the ports in Esbjerg in Denmark, Cuxhaven in Germany, Hull in the UK and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.”

States noted that the state of New Jersey is developing a new wind support port on the Delaware River at an investment of $400 million dollars with a projection of generating 1,500 new jobs.

The New Jersey facility is designed to provide laydown area and manufacturing for offshore wind farms that are being planned for construction along the U.S. Atlantic coast.

Raadschelders said a similar port already exists in the Netherlands at Eemshaven. 

The Eemshaven port boasts “it has become a base, marshalling and service port for offshore windfarms especially in the German neighbouring part of the North Sea. Eemshaven is close to the North Sea, and well-equipped to accommodate logistic (offshore) projects. Many facilities are available such as business sites, service locations, storage possibilities, (heavy load) quays, jetties, office space, etc.”

Raadschelders said a similar wind farm support facility is planned for the Port of Rotterdam. 

In addition, he said the scope of wind farm developments in northern Europe is so vast that there are plans to build a new wind support port on an island in the North Sea. This would support lay down and assembly for wind turbines as well as for resupply vessels.

In 2017, the Port of Rotterdam announced it is the latest partner in the North Sea Wind Power Hub Consortium (see image above), which thus far has comprised TenneT TSO B.V. (Netherlands), Energinet (Denmark), TenneT TSO GmbH (Germany) and Gasunie (Netherlands), welcomes a strong partner with a clear sustainability strategy. The Port’s recent experience in seaward land reclamation is an important asset for the consortium.

Energy Storage

Raadschelders noted that the surplus of electricity generated by wind and solar power cannot be readily stored on the grid but can be stored in batteries. This will require a ramp up of battery construction on an industrial scale. It is proposed to use wind and solar power surplus to create the electrolysis that converts water into hydrogen that powers hydrogen fuel cells as a storage for surplus electricity and a fuel to power trucks and ships generating zero emissions.

The report describes the challenges to ports:

“Within the port itself, electrification of port-connected activities through cold ironing and electrifying ferries and short-range shipping will have a major impact on the required electric infrastructure. For example, charge poles must be installed and connected in crowded port areas. Inland transport will have a similar impact on the required infrastructure, depending to what extent road transportation will be decarbonized by electrification or by other means, like hydrogen. Most of this additional electricity demand in ports will likely have little flexibility by itself. Benefits often allocated to electrification of road transport, such as peak shaving to avoid extra cabling for which there might be little space, will need to come from additional measures, such as batteries. 

The landing of immense quantities of energy from offshore wind farms in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to shore will also require huge investments. This applies not only for establishing the needed offshore grid and connections but also for the transmission of this energy to the main electricity system.

It may be possible to avoid or reduce costs for investments in the transmission system through flexible solutions that use part of this energy at or near, the port. The most obvious applications are opportunity heating and hydrogen production by electrolysis. A prerequisite however is that this industry can share in the cost savings in the transmission system, making the business case for these flexible solutions viable in ports first.”

Finally, the report notes that the landing and storing of surplus electricity can not only power port operations and battery powered trucks but support renewable power generation for warehouses and industries located near the port:

“Some ports are natural hubs for connecting offshore wind. Capacity constraints in the transmission networks will make transporting this energy further inland a challenge. This means these ports are places where an excess of renewable energy caused by offshore wind will be likely. Therefore, industrial areas near these ports are possibly the first places to benefit from excess renewable wind power. Converting this power into hydrogen (as well as heat) through electrolysis might first become economically feasible near ports, assuming industry can benefit from the products hydrogen, oxygen, heat. “