Finnish shipping company Meriaura has signed a contract with energy utility Stockholm Exergi for the sea transport of woodchips and woodpellets within the Baltic Sea.
This is the first commercial contract for Meriaura’s 2016-built, biofuel-powered EcoCoaster vessels .
The company said it would use climate friendly, 100 percent biofuel as power source to deliver services under the contract.
Stockholm Exergi has chosen the EcoCoaster option as it aims to achieve fully CO2 neutral operations. In 2018, 86 percent of the company’s district heat distributed was based on renewable sources or recovered energy, Meriaura noted.
The rest was based on fossil fuels, including coal. By 2022, coal should be completely replaced by sustainable sources and the energy production would be based on renewable or recovered energy sources close to 100 percent.
“Emissions from shipping and transport will be of greater relative importance as we phase out fossil fuels in our own production,” Ulf Wikström, Head of Sustainability at Stockholm Exergi, said.
“This contract contributes to the development of transport solutions on our way towards 100 percent carbon neutrality.”
Meriaura said it started offering its customers an option to sign for low-emission contracts against a small premium, which equals to the price difference between marine gas oil and eco fuel. The company would also provide calculations on CO2 reductions achieved by choosing this contract-type.