She has business in focus as boating is electrified

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions at sea requires better charging infrastructure for electric boats. In the go:LEIF project, we are working to enable charging points along the coast from Gothenburg to Kristiansand in Norway. Innovatum Science Park is running the project and Business Region Göteborg is one of many key partners. Here, their project manager Madeleine Johansson answers five questions about the initiative.

1.Why is Business Region Göteborg involved in go:LEIF?

In 2020, we were commissioned by the City of Gothenburg to coordinate the transition of the city's transport system to electrification. Even then, we saw an opportunity to work with Grefab on electrification in our marinas. This developed into the go:LEIF project, where we now collaborate with eleven other partners from both Norway and Sweden. 

The vision is that by 2030 we will have a large market with many suppliers and a functioning infrastructure for electric boats. A string of charging facilities along the coast between Gothenburg and Strömstad, into the Oslo Fjord and further south on the other side of the Skagerrak to Agder in Norway.

2. What is your role in the project?

From Business Region Gothenburg's side, we have our focus on business development for companies in the charging infrastructure value chain. This means that our role is to develop the conditions for business and contribute to the development of the market.

We match, have dialog with and meet companies that want and can be part of the solutions for ports and municipalities today and in the future. One idea we are looking at is to develop a Norwegian-Swedish business network.

3. What issues is the project focusing on at the moment?

Right now, it is very much about skills transfer between our target groups: ports, municipalities and industry. And to gain increased knowledge about the technology shift that is taking place and how we can work together to establish a cross-border sustainable charging infrastructure.

We see that the market with companies that have different solutions is growing. There, both boat manufacturers and ports are need owners, but at different ends of the value chain for charging infrastructure. The project can be the platform for dialog where need owners and suppliers of different solutions can interact.

4. What are the needs and challenges of the transition shift in the boating industry?

The need for new knowledge, I would say. We don't have a definitive answer to what is happening right now, but we are acquiring new knowledge along the way. This can be challenging in itself, but also very exciting and leads in turn to the need for increased collaboration.

But also that there will be more need owners of electricity supply and effects and where many places along the coast and in the archipelago already today have major challenges. Here we hope that go:LEIF can contribute to dialog and consensus between different actors regarding expansion linked to needs and opportunities.

5. How can the project contribute to meeting business needs and supporting development?

We see that there is a lot of knowledge and expertise from other industries that have already made this journey and are now curiously looking at the maritime industry. For example, the automotive industry, where many of the solutions can be adapted to a maritime environment to some extent. We believe this will accelerate the transition. The collaboration that takes place in the project is also an important part.

The go:LEIF project consists partly of tests and demos that can contribute to new innovations that meet the needs and challenges of technological development. And it is moving fast, in just a few years the power demand for electrified transport has increased significantly. We believe that it will be even more important to collaborate and create synergies to both share and co-invest instead of building separate infrastructures.