Fundación Valenciaport presents its decarbonization and energy transition projects to the port community

During the event, held yesterday, topics such as the adaptation of the sector to climate change, electricity supply to ships or sustainable fuels, among others, were addressed
Fundación Valenciaport presented a total of seven projects: GREENMED, POWER4MED, SEANERGY, BLUEBARGE, ARSINOE, POSEIDON and SEAFAIRER

Valencia, February 12th, 2025. – Fundación Valenciaport held yesterday in Valencia the conference “Innovation initiatives for decarbonising the Mediterranean” with the aim of presenting the main initiatives in which it is involved in energy transition and decarbonization.The event, which brought together more than fifty representatives of the port community, was attended by speakers who are experts in port sustainability at national and international level.

During the opening, Antonio Torregrosa, general director of Fundación Valenciaport, welcomed the attendees and Leonardo Manzari, representative of the Westmed Initiative in Italy, presented the main challenges of decarbonization in the Mediterranean port logistics sector.

This was followed by the first block of the day, focused on alternative fuels for maritime transport.

Manolis Annetis, research engineer at the Maritime Risk Group of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), reviewed the objectives and progress of the GREENMED project, an initiative that aims to promote green shipping in the Mediterranean basin by analyzing the energy demand of the currently operating fleet and evaluating transition scenarios towards a sustainable future.He also presented a techno-economic analysis of the current bunkering system in the region and the actions needed to promote decarbonization in port logistics.

Next, Aurelio Lázaro, Senior Project Manager of Fundación Valenciaport, presented the progress and first results of the POWER4MED project, which aims to develop tools to facilitate the path towards carbon neutrality of three sectors; fishing vessels, commercial vessels and marinas.

The first part of the day concluded with a round table moderated by Francisco Tinaut, Professor of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) in the CMT- Clean Mobility&Thermofluids, in which new fuels in the maritime industry were discussed. Daniel García (POSEIDON), Jan Octavio Wilske (SEAFAIRER), Marta Pascual (Westmed), Manolis Annetis (GREENMED) and Aurelio Lázaro (POWER4MED) participated in this round table.

Marina Arroyo, Project Manager of Fundación Valenciaport, began the second block of the day with the presentation of the SEANERGY project, an initiative that seeks to move towards “Zero Emissions” ports.

During his speech, he highlighted the Catalogue of Technologies for Port Decarbonization, one of the main tools of the project to facilitate the energy transition.

Next, Ignacio Benítez, Senior Project Manager of Fundación Valenciaport, presented the BLUEBARGE project, whose main objective is to develop a barge designed to supply electric power to docked and anchored ships, through the use of batteries of different technologies, contributing to the reduction of emissions and the promotion of more sustainable infrastructures in the port logistics sector.

Subsequently, the SEANERGY workshop was held by Marina Arroyo and Sandra Roselló, deputy director of Fundación Valenciaport, where they explained the main resources developed by the project to help port organizations to develop their energy transition strategies.

The last block of the day focused on the adaptation of ports to climate change, which began with the intervention of Begoña Pérez, from the Department of Climate Change and Prediction of Puertos del Estado, who presented the strategies to improve the resilience of Spanish ports against the environmental impacts of climate change.

The conference concluded with the presentation of the ARSINOE project, an initiative that studies the impact of climate change on ports with the aim of developing strategies to mitigate its effects.

Noemí Monterde, Senior Project Manager of Fundación Valenciaport, shared the functioning of the Climate Change Observatory of the Port Authority of Valencia, created within the framework of this initiative, with the aim of analyzing the effect of climate phenomena on port infrastructures and operations. For his part, José María García-Valdecasas, head of Coastal Services at NOW Systems, presented Clevertool, a tool designed to evaluate these impacts and support the definition of adaptation measures.