Norway’s cleantech company TECO 2030 and its partners have been awarded a €13.5 million Horizon Europe grant to build and demonstrate a passenger ferry powered by TECO 2030 fuel cells.
Specifically, the partners’ project has been invited for Horizon Europe grant agreement preparation.
The project’s consortium consists of 14 partners from seven European countries covering the whole innovation value chain, including technology developers, academic institutions, maritime engineering, class society, digital transformation and a shipyard. The grant amount reserved for TECO 2030 is €2.3 million.
TECO 2030 stated that the main goal of the project is to accelerate the transition towards the safe use of sustainable fuels in waterborne transport through a full-scale demonstration of hydrogen fuel cells within maritime applications.
It further said the project is a Horizon Innovation Action that aims to develop, build and demonstrate a 35-meter, 300-passenger capacity vessel that will be powered by its FCM400 fuel cell system.
The vessel will be operated in Southern Europe, and TECO 2030 noted it will work closely with all the consortium partners to develop the entire value chain ensuring full operational requirements for the vessel. This includes a functional hydrogen refuelling system, fulfilling infrastructure requirements, cost optimization during operations and efficient data management.
According to TECO 2030, the project proposal was submitted in April 2023 and has been evaluated by experts in the European Commission (EC) in terms of excellence, impact and quality.
The grant preparation process is expected to be finalized later this year, with the project start date estimated at around January 2024.
“I’m proud to announce that we have won our second Horizon Europe project! Winning two EU projects out of two attempts is an extraordinary achievement, and I would like to thank our partners and our internal proposal writing team for their strong efforts,” said Fredrik Aarskog, Director of Business Development, TECO 2030.
Tore Enger, Group CEO, TECO 2030, commented: “We are thrilled to continue to showcase how hydrogen can contribute to the reduction of harmful emissions within the marine industry. This project has the potential to enable seaborne passenger transport, without any emissions.”
To note, waterborne transport, in particular the use of large seagoing vessels, remains a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Within the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a global agreement was reached in 2018 to reduce total GHG emissions from maritime transport by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008 as a base year.
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