Gotland Tech Development

Gotland Tech Development leads Gotlandsbolagets's work with phasing out fossil fules from our operations and accelerating our role as leading player with the climate transition. The company cooperates closely with all of our operations within Gotlandsbolaget as well as external partners to be at the forefront of technical development and innovative solutions.

A test bed for the future

Gotland Tech Development works with partners from academia and business to move technology from the drawing board or test environment to reality and further develop ideas. The focus is on driving the transformation of shipping, and thanks to our fleet of ships, we have the opportunity to act as a test bed for new ideas and innovations. In addition, we participate in several related projects to develop fossil-free fuels. This means that we follow developments in the entire transport, energy and fuel area.

Hydrogen for the Gotland services

Gotland Tech Development is running several projects to develop and secure a supply of fossil free hydrogen for future vessels. One of these is a joint project with Uppsala University aimed at developing and ensuring sustainable solutions for hydrogen used by Gotland services. This project is led by researchers at Uppsala University (Campus Gotland) in collaboration with industry and most of the energy companies. The Horizon series is being used as a case study, and the project has also been awarded funding from the Swedish Energy Agency. The aim of the project is to present a complete and reliable system for fossil-free hydrogen that can be implemented by 2030.

Read more about Gotland Horizon Link.

Biogas Research Centre

Biogas has a key role to play in shaping the transition of shipping away from fossil fuels, although supply remains a limiting factor. Gotland Tech Development cooperates with the Biogas Research Centre, a national centre of excellence for industrially and socially focused research and development in the field of biogas solutions.

Upgrades and efficiencies in current fleet

Gotland Tech Development is working on a project on how to make Destination Gotland’s two natural gas/biogas vessels can partially electrified. The project is looking at how the ships’ generators can be replaced with a bank of rechargeable batteries, giving passengers access to fossil-free electricity while on board. This would make the ships what are known as “plug-in hybrids”.

 

The plan is for the ships’ batteries to be charged using solar energy in port, which include a technical solution for energy storage on land plus the associated charging and management system. Supplementing the current generators with rechargeable batteries would significantly reduce the ships’ CO2 emissions. The initiative is a collaborative project involving Gotland Tech Development, Helios Nordic Energy, METS Technology AB and ABB, and has been awarded funding from the Swedish Energy Agency.