David Surplus, co-founder of B9 Energy Storage from Larne, Northern Ireland, is part of the Maritime Power-to-X project team investigating the feasibility of a Green Shipping Corridor between Northern Ireland and the Northwest of England. Looking to the year ahead, David says that the retrofit market can bring a new lease of life to the maritime sector in more ways than one.

The shipping industry has set the goal of net zero emissions by 2050 and if this ambitious target is to be met, renewable fuels need to be developed and onboarded as a matter of urgency. In the near term, the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) ambition is for 5% of shipping’s fuel mix to be low carbon by 2030, which seems like a daunting ask for a sector facing challenging headwinds and supply and demand issues.