University helps to pilot pioneering clean maritime initiative

The Virtual Bunkering for Electric Vessels project will showcase how clean maritime technologies can provide energy flexibility to harbours and ports
Â鶹´«Ã½ harbour marina
The Â鶹´«Ã½ is part of a transformative project that will showcase how clean maritime technologies can provide energy flexibility to harbours and ports, at the same time as benefitting the UK’s energy grid.
The Virtual Bunkering for Electric Vessels (VBEV) demonstration initiative marks the world's first vessel-to-grid project.
It will demonstrate some of the opportunities to be leveraged through bidirectional infrastructure, including the use of marine batteries to provide energy storage and management services to harbours, ports, and the grid. It will also aim to minimise costly grid upgrades, reduce energy bills, and increase renewables integration.
The project is being driven by a consortium with wide-ranging expertise in marine infrastructure, vessel manufacturing, software, and energy.
It is being led by Aqua superPower and, in addition to the University, other partners include: vessel manufacturers RS Electric and Ingenity; energy company EDF; City College Â鶹´«Ã½; research centre CENEX; and bi-directional software provider Fuuse Ltd.
Together, they hope to advance efforts to significantly slash carbon emissions and propel the maritime industry towards a cleaner and more sustainable future.

This project is another important step in the UK's transition to clean maritime technologies. There is clear appetite from both vessel and harbour owners to see the sector grow over the coming years, but technical questions remain that need to be answered. One of those is around battery performance and health and this project will begin addressing that, while aligning with the growing commercial interest in clean maritime and how it can be rolled out more widely.