COLLABORATE, INNOVATE, DECARBONISE

It was a pleasure to attend and speak at The Net Zero Maritime Hub event onboard HMS Albion as a part of London International Shipping Week 2021, which was delivered in partnership with the UK Government's Department for International Trade. Seeing partners, industry friends and colleagues again highlighted the importance of industry collaboration and unity as we strive for innovation to accelerate progress towards our sector’s decarbonisation goals.

The event was designed to showcase UK company expertise in products and services to help decarbonise the maritime sector. I explained the value of having a comprehensive decarbonisation strategy and acting on it now to remain competitive as the industry changes. However, given the long lifecycle of ships, it is equally important to carefully consider any investments to avoid technology lock-in or underperforming - or even stranded -assets.?Whenever we are assessing a vessel or a fleet, our simple message is: “Don’t start with the technology. Start with the ship.”

Objective, expert advice on how to best adapt assets, as the economy and society transition towards sustainable energy and practices, can help. The reality is that maritime design and engineering can be a highly technical space, and therefore consultancy is often required. Houlder is an entirely independent consultancy, with no parent company, financial affiliations, or equipment to sell – allowing it to offer entirely objective advice on what is best for its clients.

At Houlder, we have a rich heritage which allows us to understand both the environment in which a vessel operates as well as how the vessel integrates with the rest of the regulatory and commercial eco-system. Not all the answers are on the ship and we certainly see our role at the centre of the solution, reaching out beyond pure engineering and naval architecture.

As we navigate the energy transition, collaboration between all industry stakeholders and across industries is key. At Houlder, we work with ship owners and operators, but also regulators such as the MCA and the IMO, commercial and financial sectors, and ports that provide the essential interface between marine transport and its destination. We also have strong relationships within the renewable energy sector, particularly in offshore wind, where the same mantra of collaboration is key. With partnerships (and with the right Government support) the UK maritime industry can maximise the economic and environmental benefits of the net-zero transition – and can lead other industries in doing so too.

We are very pleased to be able to demonstrate this with our most recent partnership, that was also announced onboard HMS Albion. Houlder, Expleo and Bibby Marine have been awarded funding by the DfT and Innovate UK to develop a green maritime solution as a part of The Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition. The competition aims to identify innovative projects that will help the maritime industry and the UK meet green targets.

Houlder will manage the first part of the project, developing a new-build vessel concept design optimised to deliver zero-emission operations. The work will include a study into the available onboard technologies to deliver the zero-emission capability, drawing on the outputs from the previous MarRI-UK funded Wavemaster Zero-C project in which Houlder is also involved. In addition, a HAZID and risk assessment of the concept will confirm safe operability.

Whether it is our offshore energy installation experience to the developing field of floating wind farms, or drawing on our track record of specialist ship design and conversion to support low-carbon vessel projects, the energy transition pushes us to innovate through collaboration. Forming trusted and expert partnerships will help ensure a successful journey to net zero for the maritime industry.

Read more about our latest collaboration here:?https://houlderltd.com/houlder-awarded-uk-department-for-transport-funding-to-develop-green-maritime-solution-in-collaboration-with-expleo-and-bibby-marine/