The RESTORE project aims to help power a green future for the maritime industry and establish the UK as a leader in marine renewable technologies.

The Government grant will be used to develop ground-breaking ways of converting crew transfer vessels from diesel to battery and hydrogen power.

The project will trial ways in which vessels, used to ferry crew to offshore locations such as windfarms, can be retrofitted with sustainable, green hydrogen and battery technology to remove the need for fossil fuels.

RESTORE gets underway in April 2023 and sees AceOn leading a consortium of businesses and organisations such as Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, Engas Global, Liverpool John Moores University, Newcastle University, Taurus Engineering and CAGE.

Mark Thompson, AceOn Manging Director, said, “Our project will demonstrate how huge parts of the maritime industry can be decarbonised by removing the need for diesel and fossil fuels and switching the much cleaner and environmentally responsible battery and hydrogen options.

“With hydrogen and battery technology together, we can extend the range of the vessel, which is something we haven’t seen demonstrated before because emission-reducing technologies for the marine industry are very often limited to onshore/in port solutions.”

The test vessel for the study will be the Princess Royal, a catamaran which is used to transport technicians to the EDF offshore wind power plant in the north sea.

The RESTORE project has been awarded the money from the Department of Transport as part of its Clean Maritime Demonstration Competitive, which was run in September last year by Innovative UK.

David Cooper, Regional Partnership Manager at ORE Catapult, said, “Decarbonising maritime operations presents a significant challenge but also a huge opportunity.

“The offshore wind industry can lead in this transformation but with current vessel potentially having a service life of decades, retrofit will have to play a role in meeting Net Zero targets.”

The boat being used for the project is based in Blyth, Northumberland, close to the proposed £3.8bn Britishvolt Gigafactory which is now in administration.

Thompson added, “I can think of no better place to showcase AceOn and our battery expertise, together with the rest of this exciting consortium, than next to the planned 30GW battery plant, which will produce the batteries needed to decarbonise the marine sector.”