PIONEERS Consortium Coordinated By Port Of Antwerp Takes Lead In Greening Of European Ports
An international consortium of 46 partners, led by the Port of Antwerp, will receive a grant of 25 million euros from the European Horizon 2020 program. This PIONEERS consortium, in which leading ports, terminal operators, carriers, forwarders, knowledge institutions, technology developers, innovators and government agencies are represented, will develop concrete solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in ports while maintaining their competitive position. The project will run for 5 years and will start at the end of 2021.
19 demonstration projects
PIONEERS is a very ambitious project that examines all aspects of port activities, from terminal activities and concessions, through mobility, fuels and connectivity, to models for collaboration and the production, storage and consumption of energy. The PIONEERS consortium has convinced the jury with a series of 19 ambitious demonstration projects in the field of production and delivery of green energy, sustainable port design, modal shift, optimization of flows and digital transition.
Some concrete examples of these demonstration projects? The actions concern the generation of renewable energy and the introduction of vehicles that run on electricity, hydrogen and methanol; adapting buildings and heating networks for energy efficiency; a circular economy approach to infrastructure works; automation; and the roll-out of digital platforms to promote modal shift and optimize movements of vehicles, vessels and containers.
Port of Antwerp: pioneering port
Port of Antwerp will act as a pioneer port, where most of the demonstration projects will take shape and which will demonstrate what a real Green Port looks like. The ports of Barcelona, Constanta and Venlo, as fellow ports, take an active role to transfer solutions to their environment as much as possible, and are involved in applying the best practices of the project.
Port of Antwerp wants to be a carbon neutral port by 2050 and is convinced that green ports can only be created through partnerships and an active dialogue with a wide network of stakeholders. In order to achieve this goal, the coming years will be crucial to get all stakeholders on board and to roll out innovative solutions. The ambitious PIONEERS project offers an excellent opportunity to promote exactly that and to ensure that innovations can also be applied in other places as much as possible.
Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO Port of Antwerp: “Port of Antwerp aims to be the first world port to reconcile the economy, people and climate. To be climate neutral by 2050, we need to take action now. PIONEERS proves how Port of Antwerp, together with a broad network of stakeholders is pioneering to achieve our goal.
Annick De Ridder, port alderman: “This is an important milestone for the port of Antwerp and the entire port community and also shows that our ambitions are on the right track. We want to use this as a financial leverage to strengthen the further greening and sustainability of the port platform and to position our port as the ultimate Green Port of Europe. ”
Reference: portofantwerp.com
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