Building on best practices (technological, non-technological and social), as well as ongoing projects and planned initiatives in European ports, proposals should address;
Area B: Green Ports
Perform large-scale, real-life high TRL demonstrations of sustainable maritime and inland ports, addressing at least 6 of the following 8 aspects:
- Demonstrate integrated low-emission energy supply and production at ports (e.g. electricity, green hydrogen, advanced biofuels and bioliquids) and supply systems (on-shore or off-shore), with storage, distribution and power / re-charging / sustainable
alternative fuel re-fueling infrastructure for ships and other vehicles operating at/to/from ports, as well as for other uses (e.g. port equipment/machinery, on-shore power supply systems for vessels mooring in the port, etc.);
- Demonstrate sustainability and innovation beyond energy supply and demand at ports, particularly the integration with green and smart logistics and operations at/to/from ports, energy-efficient buildings, innovative construction, dredging and infrastructure
activities, effective and green land use;
- Demonstrate seamless and highly efficient logistics operations, for integrated sea/river-port-hinterland connections (e.g. between sea/river, rail and road), to enable modal shifts and system-wide door-to-door multimodal passenger mobility and freight
transport;
- Perform pilot activities to showcase the positive environmental effects of digitalisation (incl. satellite-based solutions) in ports, particularly with clean (e.g. electrified / hydrogen) connected and automated vehicles and cranes, as well as intelligent
port systems and dynamic vessel traffic flows for improved routing and scheduling, to minimise ship time at port, enabling efficient and automated logistics chains and multimodal inter-connections;
- Deliver new tools and optimisation mechanisms for multimodal access, passenger and freight flows into and out of the port, as well as between ports, facilitating port access and reducing traffic from / to the city or other nodes;
- Assess non-technological framework conditions, such as market mechanisms and potential regulatory actions in the short and medium term, which can provide financial/operational incentives and legal certainty for implementing low-emission solutions
(e.g. considering first-mover advantage, best-equipped-best-served principles and port market share effects);
- Develop and promote new multi-actor governance arrangements that address the interactions between all port-related stakeholders, including port authorities, ship owners, local communities, civil society organisations and city, regional or national
planning departments, in order to accelerate the production and use of sustainable energy;
- Deliver a Master Plan for the future Green Port, with a bold vision and a roadmap with milestones to achieve GHG neutral shipping and minimal pollution in maritime and inland port areas (incl. ships in and approaching port) by 2030, 2040 and 2050;
as well as addressing the associated investment / cost implications (incl. operational and capital expenditures). This master plan should also address:
- A wider socio-economic perspective, covering sustainable and smart mobility, technical, operational, economic, environmental and social aspects, relevant to shaping the green ports of the future and their integration with other sustainable transport
modes, the hinterland, cities and urban mobility;
- Solutions with the highest potential for emission reduction at ports, focusing on CO2 and noxious pollutant emissions (SOx, NOx and particulates), as well as water pollution and noise, but also on improving biodiversity, the soil and the aquatic
environment, while considering climate change effects (e.g. sea/river-level rise, new tourism patterns, etc.);
- Analysis of the various alternatives for the provision of power supply at the port, such as fixed land energy grid vs. mobile power production and supply (e.g. LNG generators/containers) and mobile storage, for instance through the use of barges
or trucks bringing energy/batteries, etc.;
- Assessment whether existing fossil fuel, LNG or other / chemical infrastructures in the broader port areas could be used to facilitate the transition towards low-emission shipping and bunkering of carbon neutral fuels;
- A holistic sustainable port design concept, leveraging green construction, demolition and dredging activities, with energy-efficient or renovated buildings, optimising land and sea/river use, improving biodiversity and circular economy;
- Scalable solutions that can be replicated/gradually scaled-up to larger or scaled-down to smaller ports, together with the demonstration of their environmental sustainability and technical, operational, and economic viability;
- Governance, business, deployment models and plans, including internal/external costs;
- Collaboration models across multiple stakeholders, paving the ground for large-scale deployment of the demonstrated innovative solutions across European ports;
- A comprehensive report of all project findings in detail, including the identified proposed suitable pathways for European ports to achieve GHG-neutrality, by use of standardised tools for assessing the comparative emission reduction of different
ports;
- A handbook on how to move from planning, to implementation, replication and scaling-up the deployment of the demonstrated solutions, for different sizes and locations of ports across Europe.
Proposals should, where appropriate, incorporate field performance monitoring with a view to assessing the effectiveness of the deployable solutions. This should be determined by measuring the performance difference (for comparable activity levels) between the initial status, considered before the innovative solutions are applied (baseline), and the status at a point in time at least 2 years into the project, after a number of the solutions produced by the project have been applied.
Proposals should also provide a quantified assessment of the expected improvement in airport or port energy consumption, as well as in greenhouse gas emissions and air quality.
Each consortium should be led by one “Lighthouse” airport or port, which will demonstrate the novel concepts and solutions and a further three (at most) “Fellow” airports or ports that will be actively associated in helping to define and incorporate their specificities in the more general approach and solutions, follow closely the demonstration actions and are committed to implement the best practices identified and results produced by the project. For Green Ports, each consortium should include at least one inland port. All consortia should also include academic and other partners (e.g. rail, road). All participating airports or ports must be from different EU Member States or Countries associated to Horizon 2020. All projects in each area must commit to collaborate, share a common communication strategy and organise common events.
Eligible costs are primarily those that concern the innovative elements of the project needed to:
- Foster innovative overall energy systems integration;
- Demonstrate effective integration of transport modes within and around the airport or port;
- Foster wider use of green hydrogen, electrification and sustainable alternative fuels at airports or ports.
Costs of commercial technologies are not eligible, for example:
• Buildings: purchase, construction, retrofitting and maintenance;
• Electric vehicles and charging stations: purchase, installation and maintenance;
• ICT platforms: purchase and maintenance.
