BlueBARGE project to pave way for bunkering anchored ships with renewable electricity

Fundación Valenciaport, an Applied Research, Innovation & Training centre providing services to the port and logistics cluster, on Friday (9 February) said the inaugural meeting of the BlueBARGE project, Blue bunkering of anchored ships with renewable generated electricity, took place in Athens, Greece. 

The project’s main objective is the design and development of an energy barge that will support the supply of electricity to moored and anchored ships.

The BlueBARGE initiative, coordinated by ABS Hellenic Single Member LTD and in which Fundación Valenciaport is actively participating, has a total budget of more than EUR 11 million, co-financed by CINEA’s Horizon Europe programme.

BlueBARGE will play a key role in the transformation of the maritime port sector towards the goals of electrification and decarbonisation, at European and international level.

The barge will limit polluting emissions following a modular, scalable, adaptable and flexible design approach that will facilitate its commercialisation by 2030. It will also address the issues of power supply integration, interconnection of the barge with ships, the port and the local power grid, as well as operational safety and regulatory compliance. In this way, it will offer a complete, high-availability power supply solution.

Among its main advantages is the speed with which it can be deployed in different locations as required. This reduces the need for time-consuming and costly infrastructure upgrades, especially in ports and harbour anchorage areas.

One of the most innovative points of BlueBARGE is the introduction of a novel hybrid concept that will combine the higher energy density of lithium (Li-ion) batteries with the innovative vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) solution, which introduces increased safety and service life.

The proposal will not only serve ships at anchor, including container ships, tankers and cruise ships, but will also be able to supply power to vessels moored in spaces where OPS (Onshore Power Supply) infrastructure deployment is limited or unavailable. In this way, it will be able to ensure the supply of energy in areas of difficult access where the supply from the port’s electricity grid is limited.

The project includes the completion of a feasibility study, the formulation of a sound operational strategy and business plan and the identification of possible sources of financing.  A small-scale prototype will also be developed and tested in a real controlled environment.

In this project, Fundación Valenciaport will contribute its experience in port operations, risk assessment of the use of alternative fuels and the implementation of OPS systems in port and will lead the work package focused on the evaluation and optimisation of the performance of the barge design.

Note: More information on the BlueBARGE project can be found here.

Photo credit: Fundación Valenciaport
Published: 14 February, 2024