Blue Horizons for the Green Transition

The great green transition needs to have a blue tint to it as well.

Our coasts and oceans are indispensable to our environment and economies. As such, the marine economy presents a huge frontier for building sustainability.

To overcome the threat of climate change, we have to carefully consider the role of our planet’s waters. The way we work with the sea as stewards and partners needs to change – and there are many already leading the way.

We here look at unique blue-green horizons, looking at economic futures presently in development: decarbonising maritime vehicles and seaweed cultivation.

Sailing the seas

Long-time residents of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and other cities around the motu will be familiar with the electrification of local trains and buses. Now businesses are working on bringing the same transformation to our harbours.

EV Maritime is a world-leading marine transportation company based in Auckland. It has been working with global technology partners to introduce electric ferries to these waters.

Manufactured from carbon-fibre and equipped with lithium ion batteries, their vehicles will be able to carry 200 passengers at up to 25 knots, and are expected to have a lifespan of more than thirty years.

The first of these new maritime vehicles were introduced to the waters of the Hauraki Gulf in June of this year. Auckland Transport has also established a specialised charging station in Half Moon Bay.

Auckland has thirteen public ferry routes, ripe for a revolutionary shift to this low-carbon alternative. Overseas, EV Maritime has also been chosen to electrify ferry services in San Francisco, exemplifying the company’s potential leadership as a new high-tech export industry.

Another homegrown company, Vessev, is tackling low-carbon marine transportation from a different angle.

Utilising both cutting edge electrical propulsion technology and traditional catamaran-style construction, their VS—7 personal vessel significantly diminishes resistance by hoisting the boat out of the waves on hydrofoils. High-tech onboard sensors track the surrounding wind and waters, adjusting the craft to maximise stability and mobility.

Vessev promises to cut maritime energy consumption by upwards of 90%. By transforming personal transportation on the waters in the same manner as personal cars, they work at the frontier of decarbonising maritime leisure and tourism.

Cultivating the future beneath the waves

That’s on the waters – but what about below the surface?

Te Huata Blue is a joint venture of the eastern Bay of Islands iwi Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and a leading California-based seaweed growing company, Blue Evolution Inc.

Growing seaweed holds enormous promise. Just like their terrestrial counterparts, pastures of seaweed are a renewable resource that can also restore their local environment. Te Huata Blue, which will cultivate a range of seaweeds across 5000 hectares of ocean, stands as an example of climate leadership by both indigenous knowledge and cutting-edge technology.

We might be most familiar with seaweed as nutritious food and livestock feed. But research is persistently finding remarkable new uses.

For one thing, seaweed can be used to produce keystone materials: for manufacturing cement, for cellulose-based textiles, and even for biodegradable plastic substitutes. Blue Evolution has also found ways to use these plants for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

Furthermore, Blue Evolution’s Orca Minerals platform claims that seaweed can be a source of minerals, as the plants naturally accumulate essential minerals from seawater. This includes rare earth minerals such as yttrium and scandium, increasingly vital due to their use in high-tech commodities.

A sustainable future could be waiting for us just off the coast. Certainly this is a space to watch.