Yara Marine back in cold ironing business

Yara Marine Technologies, a Norwegian provider of exhaust gas cleaning systems, has decided to relaunch its shore power business amid increasing demand for onshore power supply systems.

In addition, Yara revealed it will team up with French company NG3 on providing cold ironing solutions.

“We used to do shore power projects on ships some years ago, but the market was too slow. Now, however, with new regulations and grants supporting shipowner’s shore power investments, we are back in the business of shore power. Together with NG3, we are ready to take on new orders,” Aleksander Askeland, CSO at Yara Marine Technologies, commented.

The EU parliament recently called for a ban on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from berthing ships at berth by 2030, in their first reading of the MRV regulation. It also voted to include GHG emissions from the maritime sector into the EU’s emissions trading scheme from 1 January, 2022.

“This is a major step for the industry. It will cut emissions tremendously. Both GHG emissions, but also local air pollution, like black carbon, SOx, and NOx, saving thousands of lives, cleaning up the air in our cities,” Askeland continued.

Specifically, the regulation would include any ships with a gross tonnage of 5,000 or more visiting ports under the jurisdiction of an EU Member State. In all practicalities, no GHG emissions at bay, within less than nine years, means ships connecting to power from shore, and possibly batteries.

Apart from the EU Parliament initiative, several ports are already introducing a ban on GHG emissions at bay by 2025.

In an effort to use this market opportunity, Yara Marine Technologies will now add cold ironing to its green technology portfolio. With a strong focus on the IMO 2030 and 2050 targets, Yara Marine Technologies plans to invest in several technologies to reduce and eliminate GHG emissions.

“Yara Marine’s ship-to-shore technology can help to save fuel that would otherwise be used to power vessels while in port. According to the Fourth IMO GHG Study, shore power can reduce overall GHG emissions from ships quite a bit. In addition, it will contribute to better air quality in the proximate port area, facilitate maintenance of the ship’s engines and generators, and reduce noise from the vessel at berth,” Askeland explained.

Last year, Yara Marine also unveiled a new corporate accelerator program, Yara Marine X, aiming to provide a home for technology and solutions that are expected to contribute to greener maritime industry. In January 2021, Yara said it selected Phoenician Energy’s aluminum-air batteries as the winner of the program.

NG3 — New Generation, Natural Gas, Natural Growth — has been in the business of shore connection systems for the last ten years along with several other technologies for ships, such as automated mooring systems, and gas combustion units for LNG propelled ships.