Port of Hirtshals has completed its first carbon accounting, and in addition to a valuable overview of the port’s total CO2 emissions, identifying areas with great potential for reducing emissions as part of achieving the port’s strategic goal of being emission-free by 2025.
Virtually all lighting on the port’s areas have been upgraded to LED, and the fish terminal, which is one of Denmark’s largest, will have to be optimised in relation to managing energy consumption.
It has been an eye-opener for Port of Hirtshals to draw up the company’s first carbon accounting. At the same time, it has also been a strong starting point for finding out where the port’s climate efforts make most sense.
‘We naturally had an idea about our power consumption, but it is the first time we have put our environmental impact into a system and thereby gained an overview of where the greatest potentials to lower our CO2 emissions are and in the long term achieve our goal of being emission-free by 2025,’ explained Peter Ydesen, Head of Technical Projects at Port of Hirtshals.
‘Cooling fish naturally accounts for a large share of the CO2 emissions, and we are therefore in the process of clarifying the potential, among other things, for more control of the energy consumption.’
The fish terminal in Hirtshals is with its 6500 square metre floor space one of the largest in Denmark, and every year catches with a total value of around DKK 224m pass through the terminal. The fish in the terminal are mainly landed at the Port of Hirtshals and are subsequently shipped out to the whole of Europe. It is first and foremost the unbroken cold chain which ensures the quality of the freshly caught fish that accounts for the largest proportion of emissions, but even when the cold chain is maintained, there are still various parameters that can be adjusted.
‘As an addition to the intelligent management of the energy consumption, replacement of older pumps and electric motors as well as heat recovery from the cooling system can contribute to lower CO2 emissions,’ Peter Ydesen said.
In 2021, the Port of Hirtshals’ CO2 emissions totalled 335.7 tonnes; 52% from electricity, 19.5% from heating and 28.4% from mobile facilities. Just under half of the port’s CO2 emissions from electricity, 48%, comes from the fish terminal, while 20% comes from port lighting. This has therefore also been an important focal point for CO2 savings. Virtually all street lighting has been systematically replaced with LED.
