Iceland’s Energy Fund has opted to support an initiative by fishing and processing group Samherji to develop ways of operating fishing vessels on green fuels, and to adapt the company’s fresher trawlers to make this possible.
The cost is estimated to run to close to ISK2 billion, and the Energy Fund’s contribution is ISK100 million. The Fund’s support is part of the government’s efforts relating to emissions of greenhouse gases and a switch to green energy.
According to naval architect Hjörvar Kristjánsson at Samherji, there is a great deal of expertise within the company, and discussions are taking place with a number of collaborators.
‘This is a far-reaching initiative. Firstly, as a responsible operator, we intend to play out part in ensuring that Iceland takes a big step in reaching emissions-related goals. We also want to support local companies in building up expertise in the technology needed to run ships on carbon-free fuel and are working with leading companies in this sector,’ he said.
‘The plans we are working to right now are to be able to adapt these vessels so that emissions of CO2 can be reduced by 75%, equivalent to 3000 tonnes annually. We’re discussing with several companies already, plus there’s a pool of knowledge within Samherji, which means that we can work on every aspect of this systematically. This is all expensive, and our expectation is that the cost of adapting one vessel is close to ISK2 billion.’
