2nd Industry-academia workshop on green transition in ports and city-port relations

On 24 May, Maritime Research Alliance organized a follow-up workshop on green transition in ports and city-port relationships at Aarhus Harbor.

The aim of this workshop was threefold: First, to connect people in the academic and business community that are working with ports and port related research. Second, to be updated on recent research and industry initiatives involving ports, and third, to develop concrete research collaborations across industry and academia. In order to facilitate this, we had presentations in the morning and break out sessions in the afternoon.

Michael Barfod and George Panagakos from DTU presented their recent research on the decarbonization of ports and maritime infrastructure. Afterwards, Ditte Gerstrøm Sørensen shared the experiences of Port of Hirtshals from a past research project and touch upon potential topics. And finally, Peter Andersen presented how BlueVisby works with virtual arrival and the role of ports in this context. After lunch, we split up into smaller groups to develop and present concrete research proposals.

Program:

11.00-11.20     Welcome and coffee

11.20-12.40     Presentations

• Michael Barfod, Associate Professor, DTU: “Recent research highlights for decarbonizing shipping”
• George Panagakos, Senior Researcher, DTU: “Decarbonizing container shipping: Assessment of policy measures and company-level implications.”
• Ditte Gerstrøm Sørensen, Head of Marketing, Port of Hirtshals
• Peter Andersen, Konsulent, Blue Visby

12.40-13.05     Lunch

13.05-14.15     RQ development session

14.15-14.45     RQ presentations + dialogue

14.45-15.00.   Summing up + way forward

Concrete projects for further collaboration from the Green Transition group

Green corridors: 

• How to expand/establish more ports (in the global south)
• Who and what, and the driver of green corridors?
• What is a green corridor (how do we define it/what does it take)?
• Digital Twins in port optimization (legal aspects etc.)

Energy islands:

• Ports as facilitators/bottlenecks
• Risk analysis

Green Competencies: 

• What competencies are required to drive the green transition in ports?

Nuclear energy (and the role of the ports): 

• Will it be accepted (locally or nationally)?

Supply constraints to the green transition: 

• What does it take to carry out the green transition (in ports)

What are the main drivers of the green transition?: 

• Development of a green business model? What does developing an economically and environmentally sustainable business model take in the long run?

Concrete projects for further collaboration from the port-city group

Visibility:

• Transparency
• Mutual understanding
• Complains
• How do we interact with people / the local community?
• How do we tell the story, not only the visible things like sound, pollution etc., but also the value the port creates?

Narratives: 

• Several narratives about the port co-exist
• Conflicting narratives
• How can we appear trustworthy while several narratives exist?
• Local DNA + history

Remember the hinterlands: 

• The city’s feelings are getting stronger. People are raising their voices, setting demands. Should we consider moving some of the activities from the port area to the hinterlands?
• Ports also need their city.
• Mapping of workforce competencies for the future

Mapping of ports:

• National port strategy
• How can the ports support the strategy?
• Return on investment
• Political collaboration
• Protect some ports from local interests