Freeport East has shown how it can become a key centre for driving transport decarbonisation and maritime green corridors.
Setting the scene, Freeport East highlighted how it has the UK’s biggest container port and main destination for container traffic to and from Europe and the Far East in the Port of Felixstowe. This is important considering how these routes are particularly crucial to many of the leading green corridor initiatives which are set to be pivotal to achieving maritime decarbonisation objectives.
The shipping sector is also expected to potentially grow by as much as 70% by 2050. Considering this, around 60% of new vessel orders in 2022 were for multi-fuel vessels, highlighting just how the transition to cleaner fuels is accelerating. Therefore, there is a real opportunity to support hundreds of skilled jobs and realise a whole host of economic benefits by positioning Freeport East and the wider region into the rapidly growing clean fuels market.
Releasing the findings of a study, Freeport East detailed how it sees more than 4,000 vessels passing through each year. This creates a potential need for over 180 tonnes of hydrogen every day for green maritime fuels, or 450MW of electrolyser capacity. Its significant container port capacity, meanwhile, could prove crucial in developing hydrogen-enabled green shipping corridors through linking up with international ports and shipping lines, and brokering new global partnerships.
Investing in new local hydrogen refuelling infrastructure could also bring great benefits to communities in Freeport East and Cambridge through cutting carbon emissions from A14 traffic flows. This could be triggered by existing fuel stations, as well as newer development sites in Felixstowe and along the A14, bringing new hydrogen investment into the logistics sector through these strategic opportunities.
