Floating Battery

Making inland shipping more sustainable is a challenge. Although shore-based power is an important solution, the project shows that only a limited number of berths are eligible for fixed shore-based power installations. As a result, many barges remain dependent on diesel generators during waiting periods, leading to emissions and noise pollution.

The ‘Floating Battery’ project changed that by investigating how energy can be delivered to the ship rather than the other way around. With floating batteries, placed on pontoons and charged ashore, ships can also access electrical energy in hard-to-reach locations.

Opportunities

The demand for sustainable energy in inland shipping is growing rapidly, while fixed infrastructure is not feasible or affordable everywhere. This project showed that innovative and flexible solutions are necessary to make the sector future-proof.

Floating batteries respond to concrete challenges such as limited space along quays, grid constraints, and rising energy demand from electrification. At the same time, they offer opportunities to reduce emissions and improve the living environment around ports.

Results and insights

The project yielded a number of important insights and concrete results:

• Demonstrated that floating batteries can be technically used for the power supply of inland vessels
• Insight into the energy consumption of moored ships and the practical use of mobile battery systems
• Confirmation that a large proportion of berths are not suitable for shore-based fixed power, necessitating flexible solutions
• Development of operational concepts to offer energy on demand and on-site
• Analysis of economic and organizational preconditions for broad roll-out
• Identification of points of attention such as investment costs, regulations, safety and certification

In addition, it turned out that this technology can also be used to charge battery-electric barges.

Impact for the sector

With ‘Floating Battery’, an important step was taken towards making inland shipping more sustainable. The project shows that the technology is already available today and can effectively contribute to a more sustainable sector. For ports, terminals and logistics players, this offers new opportunities to respond flexibly to energy demand without heavy investments in fixed infrastructure. At the same time, it opens up perspectives for further innovation and cooperation within the sector.