Green Shipping in the Dutch State Fleet

The European Commission supported the Netherlands in its objective of achieving a carbon neutral state shipping fleet by assessing the suitability of technological options and providing advice for the scale up of green technologies as part of the state fleet renewal programme and the wider shipping sector.

Context

The European Green Deal aims to make the EU climate-neutral by 2050. This requires that all sectors play their part, including shipping. At national level, the Dutch government and the maritime industry signed a Green Deal on Maritime and Inland Shipping and Ports to decarbonise shipping. In order to support this transition and fulfil the exemplary role of the public sector, the Netherlands have decided to start greening their own state fleet under management of the Dutch State Shipping Company. In this context, the Netherlands asked for support from the TSI to assess whether alternative, greener propulsion technologies, such as methanol and hydrogen, could be suitable to decarbonise the Dutch state fleet, and how their use could be scaled up. 

Support delivered

The project supported the Netherlands in assessing whether methanol and hydrogen propulsion technologies could be applied safely and effectively to the Dutch state fleet, and to draw conclusions for the scale-up of these technologies. In particular the project provided advice for:

• Setting specifications for applying methanol and hydrogen technology on a seagoing pilot vessel of the future Dutch state fleet; 
• Developing an action plan for replicating and scaling the methanol and hydrogen technology to the full range of the Dutch state fleet renewal programme.

Results achieved

The project results are expected to support the Dutch authorities in their objective to achieve a carbon neutral state fleet by facilitating the development of reliable and sustainable vessels in the context of the state fleet renewal programme. 

More about the project

You can read the documents related to the project here: