Port Esbjerg teams up with Honeywall on massive decarbonization mission

Danish Port Esbjerg has formed a partnership with technology company Honeywell as part of its efforts to become climate neutral.

Honeywell has extensive experience in measuring and managing digital transformation for cities and airports working to become greener and smarter.

The arrangement involves assistance in the day-to-day management of carbon emissions from the port and the development of methods for electrification, digitalization and monitoring of energy consumption and emissions at the port.

The port said that it was the first one to launch such an extensive climate project.

A number of ideas are being considered as part of the endavour including a shore-power supply station allowing ships to tap green electricity when docked at the port, digitalisation of the shore power supply to measure the reduction of the carbon footprint, and digitalisation of the energy consumption of vehicles and mobile equipment at the port to measure the reduction of CO2 emissions when converting from fossil fuels to electric power.

“We have an obligation to reduce our carbon footprint, and given our size, the many ships calling and the broad range of activities going on here in general, carbon emissions at the port are quite substantial, and we intend do something about it,” explains Port Esbjerg CEO Dennis Jul Petersen.

However, the task will be extensive and complex to carry out.

“It’s easy to supply power to ferries that arrive and leave again at specific times on a daily basis. The rest of the traffic at the port is different, and that makes it difficult to implement a green transition which also makes business sense,” says Pedersen.

According to Lana Sukhodolska, Head of Sales and Business Development at Honeywell, the solution that the company will be developing with Port Esbjerg is absolutely unique in terms of its scope.

“Other ports may have energy efficiency solutions for their buildings, but no one has ever done what we’ll be doing at the port of Esbjerg. We’ll include everything from vessels, infrastructure and maybe also various companies operating at the port,” she said.

In its initial phase, the project will map the energy consumption and carbon emissions of ships, buildings and port operations. Next, it will develop methods for additional electrification, digitalisation and management of energy consumption and emissions relative to port operations.

“The people at Port Esbjerg know what they want, and in many ways, we see Port Esbjerg as a benchmark for other ports, especially in terms of sustainability. However, in order for this project to succeed, we need to establish what the company’s current position is. During this initial phase, we will map, monitor and manage current energy consumption and carbon emissions,” explains Sukhodolska.

Honeywell and Port Esbjerg are now collaborating on the development of the system which can provide a complete picture of carbon emissions at the port.

Once in use, the system will enable Port Esbjerg to trace and manage all energy consumption remotely and in real time – it may even be able to do the same for energy generated by solar panels and battery-charging infrastructure to be installed in the future.

The system is also expected to benefit the companies operating at the port, as they will be able to track their individual carbon footprints.

The Port of Esbjerg is one of the leading ports in Europe in terms of handling and shipping out wind power. It has also been the primary base for oil and gas activity in the Danish North Sea and an intermodal hub.