RIVER THAMES HUBS

Location - London, River Thames, Greenwich

The proposed maritime infrastructure solution is a world first: a 2000-square-metre midstream facility made up of floating, modular, and scalable “Smart Hubs.”

The Smart Hubs are floating platforms that integrate cutting-edge technologies to support a wide range of maritime applications, including future fuel provision, electric charging and connections, cargo handling, and passenger services.

The modular nature of the Smart Hubs ensures future readiness to meet changing market and societal demands through rapidly deploying new technologies or infrastructure capabilities.

THE CHALLENGE

Vessels utilizing this location currently rely on on-board diesel generators to power the ship’s hotel load, which includes heating, cooling, lighting, and various powered appliances. This practice leads to significant and continuous combustion of hydrocarbons, resulting in the release of pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions during their lengthy stays, which can extend for several weeks.

The River Thames in this area is highly urbanized, adjacent to densely populated residential neighbourhoods and popular tourist attractions, including renowned historical sites, museums, and the Cutty Sark. Despite numerous attempts over the years to implement shore power solutions, none have proven viable due to challenges such as high infrastructure costs, particularly for grid connections, and the approximately 7-meter tidal range.

THE SOLUTION

ELIRE Infra proposes installing a floating 'Smart Hub' facility. This innovative facility will feature passenger handling capabilities and a connection to the mainland grid through a shoreside substation.

It aims to supply power for visiting vessels' hotel loads, thus allowing auxiliary generators to be shut down while docked, a process known as cold ironing.

The facility is designed as a multipurpose venue that offers comprehensive solutions for both river operations and community engagement. Its functions include but are not limited to, cargo and river logistics, hosting community events, clean energy storage and power applications, refuelling smaller vessels, and facilitating technical demonstrations focused on achieving maritime net-zero goals.

As demand for practical applications grows, this facility provides an invaluable space for river operators to collaboratively test and implement new operations and technologies while planning and advancing their net-zero programs and initiatives.

ENGINEERED FOR SEAMLESS INTEGRATION

These modular, scalable hubs are hexagonal in form, made up of a central technical ‘nucleus’ and six outer platforms.

The hexagonal form brings increased strength and connections, allowing scalability and flexibility; many hexagons can be added together, or taken apart, which means that ports and harbours are not left with an unused asset that is no longer generating revenue while continuing to carry maintenance liabilities.

Leveraging a blend of existing and cutting-edge maritime and floating technologies, The smart nature of the ‘'Smart Hubs' allows them to be a base for various potential future fuel options for the marine industry and are engineered to support the integration of clean energy and electrification of the mobility sector to accelerate decarbonisation and net zero goals.

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

The average diesel consumption rate of a berthed cruise ship is estimated to be upwards of 700l per hour. This is comparable to 680 idling HGV road vehicles in the centre of some of the world’s most densely populated cities, in this case, Greenwich, London.

Removing the emissions from around 25 cruise ship calls per year (in Greenwich) represents an estimated saving of 50,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. In particulate emissions, this is equivalent to around half a million cars on the roads of London.

To address this significant environmental impact, we propose the installation of a shoreside grid connection to the Smart Hubs installed mid-stream at Greenwich which provides shore-side electrical power to ships at berth, allowing them to turn off their main and auxiliary engines, commonly referred to as 'cold ironing.'

SMART SOLUTIONS

We're transforming the future of maritime infrastructure to drive sustainable growth.

Our innovative Smart Hubs empower ports, maritime facilities and cities to expand efficiently, adding new revenue streams and future-proofing their assets.

Designed to help ports grow their market presence and meet evolving demands, our modular, flexible platforms allow customers to scale at pace while reducing environmental impact.

Our solutions enable customers to strengthen their competitive edge, adapt to emerging technologies and accelerate sustainable growth.

Learn more

NOW LEASING!

Aiming for installation pre-summer 2026, to then open for operation by summer 2026, we are working closely with local authorities and stakeholders of the river and community to deliver this unique facility.

The versatility of the unique multi-modal hexagon Smart Hub design allows for configurations tailored to specific cases and locations including last-mile midstream river cargo configurations to improve air quality and reduce CO2 emissions and road congestion.

Usage includes:

Vessel Charging: Infrastructure for electric and hybrid vessel charging.
Cargo and Transport Consolidation: A floating hub for consolidating cargo and transport along the river, reducing HV emissions on the roads of London.
Last-Mile Logistics: A centre for last-mile delivery logistics.
Energy Bunkering: Facilities for clean energy bunkering.
Education Centre: A hub for maritime education and training initiatives.
Community Engagement: Space for community and public engagement activities.
New retail and leisure spaces for events

If you are interested in using the facility for river transport purposes, events and other activities please get in touch to learn more.