ELIRE’s Hydrogen Power Hub Named ‘International Innovation of the Year’

AMSTERDAM - ELIRE Maritime  has been awarded Ports and Harbours International Innovation of the Year at the Advanced Maritime Technology International Awards 2026.

The accolade highlights a vital shift in the maritime energy transition: moving hydrogen infrastructure past theoretical roadmaps and into immediate, grid-independent reality.

Global ports face an infrastructure bottleneck. While pressure mounts to eliminate berth-side emissions, land-side utility grids are constrained by capacity limitations, intensive civil engineering works, and multi-year upgrade delays.

ELIRE Maritime’s award-winning Hydrogen Power Hub solution solves this crisis by moving clean energy infrastructure entirely onto the water. Built on our proprietary Smart Hubs systems engineering, these maritime, modular microgrids combine hydrogen generation, storage, fuel cells, and intelligent energy management into a single plug-and-play turnkey asset.

Figure 1: ELIRE's three modular floating platforms achieve a ~1,200 sqm footprint, delivering grid-independent utility-grade AC/DC power directly to berthed vessels.

Off-Grid Power: Key Validated Outcomes

The platform’s commercial and technical readiness is supported by a comprehensive baseline of validated operational outcomes:

• Power Output: 5MW continuous clean power validated.

• Weekly Delivery: ~91MWh energy delivery capacity.

• Carbon Reduction: ~77% CO₂ emission reduction at berth (~47 tonnes saved per vessel/week, or ~2,444 tonnes annually).

• Grid Independence: Fully demonstrated across a compact ~1,200 sqm modular floating footprint.

• Compatibility: Confirmed for 6.6kV and 11kV vessel architectures.

Overcoming Port Grid Capacity Limitations and Stranded Asset Risks

“Our Hydrogen Power Hubs are designed to solve one of the industry's biggest challenges: how ports can realistically electrify and reduce emissions without being constrained by grid limitations, land availability, or long infrastructure delivery timelines,”

says Luke Jenkinson, Founder and CEO of ELIRE Group. 

“What makes the solution particularly exciting is that it moves hydrogen beyond theory and into operational reality. Rather than inventing entirely new technologies, we focused on integrating existing hydrogen, battery, and fuel cell systems into a smarter maritime infrastructure model that ports can realistically adopt.”

By shifting energy storage and high-power delivery to maritime assets, ELIRE systematically eliminates the financial trap of traditional onshore development. Onshore infrastructure requires permanent piling, land reclamation, and carries a high "stranded asset" risk if terminal layouts change.

In contrast, ELIRE's system is 80% pre-engineered and certified for rapid installation, with the final 20% tailored for site and purpose – allowing ports to scale capacity incrementally through phased adoption.

Commercial Traction and Global Market Potential

Addressing an estimated 62TWh annual global market, ELIRE’s Hydrogen Power Hubs have the potential to drive up to 500,000 tonnes of global CO₂ reductions over the next decade. Early deployment and commercial discussions are already progressing in key maritime hubs, including UK, Australia, the Med & the Nordics..

Luke Jenkinson, ELIRE Group CEO

“This award recognises the importance of infrastructure innovation in accelerating practical maritime decarbonisation rather than simply setting long-term targets,"

"We are proving that grid-independent, clean power is achievable today using commercially available technologies integrated in the right way.”