Carbon accounting provides overview of CO2 emissions: Fish terminal and lighting have the greatest climate potential at Port of Hirtshals

26 Jun 2023

Port of Hirtshals has completed its first carbon accounting, and in addition to a valuable overview of the port's total CO₂ emissions, areas with great potential of reducing emissions and the port is thereby a step closer to achieving the port's strategic goal of being emission-free by 2025 have been identified. Virtually all lighting on the port's areas have been upgraded to LED, and the fish terminal, which is one of Denmark's largest, must be optimised in relation to managing the 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. This explains Peter Ydesen, Head of Technical Projects at Port of Hirtshals.

- 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. 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 is with its unbroken cold chain is the biggest sinner in Port of Hirtshals' carbon accounting. Photo: Japo Cladek

The fish terminal in Hirtshals is with its 6,500 square metres one of the largest in Denmark, and every year fish with a total value of approx. DKK 224m pass through the terminal. The fish in the terminal are mainly landed at Port in 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, which is the sinner, 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, says Peter Ydesen.

Great savings with LED
In 2021, Port of Hirtshals' CO₂ emissions reached a total of 335.7 tonnes; 52 percent from electricity, 19.5 percent from district heating and 28.4 percent from mobile facilities. Just under half of the port's CO₂ emissions from electricity, 48 percent, comes from the fish terminal, while 20 percent comes from port lighting. And lighting has therefore also been an important focal point for CO₂ savings. Virtually all street lighting has been continuously replaced with LED.

The diagram shows the percentage distribution of Port of Hirtshals' total CO2 emissions in 2021.

20 percent of Port of Hirtshals' total electricity consumption comes from port lighting.

- During 2023, when we have finished replacing all of the port lighting with LED, our total energy consumption from lighting will be reduced by 41 percent. This provides a CO₂ saving of over 11 tonnes per year and a financial saving of over DKK 220,000 per year, says Peter Ydesen and continues:

- The carbon accounting has given us a very useful overview of how our carbon footprint is divided, and where we should put our effort. We would like to do our part in keeping global warming below the 1.5 degrees defined in the Paris Agreement, and it is therefore our goal that Port of Hirtshals has reduced its CO₂ emissions by at least 65 percent in 2035 compared to 2021.

Fact
In 2021, Port of Hirtshals' CO₂ emissions reached a total of 335.5 tonnes and were divided as follows:

District heating 19.50 percent
Mobile facilities (vessels, marine gas oil, truck gas, etc.): 28.40 percent
Electricity: 52 percent