Danish demonstration projects as drivers of maritime energy efficient technologies

Abstract

This article presents a multiple case study of demonstration projects addressing technologies for energy efficient retrofit solutions for the maritime sector. Inertia in the sector in general prolongs the implementation of energy efficient technologies. Demonstration projects have the purpose to test a given technology and its ability to enter the market to support the diffusion of technologies. The aim of the article is to analyze the drivers and barriers in demonstration projects in the maritime sector and the potential outcome of the projects. We analyze the dynamics of the processes in the demonstration projects in order to understand how the projects can facilitate the implementation of energy efficient technologies. The analysis consists of a case study of 5 Danish maritime demonstration projects. The demonstration projects involve both actors that are used to collaborating and actors in new constellations. When the actors do not know each other in advance, their collaboration involves challenges, but they also have the potential for contributing with new knowledge in the network.Demonstration projects are an opportunity to facilitate green retrofits in a somewhat resistant maritime sector, as they serve as a platform for both the development and the implementation of cleaner technologies.Demonstration projects make it possible to test and develop technologies from other sectors. The test of energy efficient technologies contributes to changing the mindsets of the users of the technologies and thereby changing the practices on board the vessels. The potentials for developing and testing technologies in multi-party networks and the economic funding that reduces the economic risks of the involved actors are the main drivers in the demonstration projects. The main barriers, on the other hand, are the existing energy management practices in the sector and the uneven economic risks of the actors involved in the projects. Our results contribute to the understanding of how demonstration projects in the maritime sector are in an early stage of the innovation process where prototypes are not yet developed. The demonstration projects create an opportunity for non-maritime actors to enter the somewhat closed cyclic collaborations in the maritime sector.