Projects

Greener Waterway Infrastructure

The Greener Waterway Infrastructure (GreenWIN) project focuses on the high consumption of energy and carbon emissions by water authorities in North-West Europe (NWE).

The pumping systems are part of the water system and therefore crucial for the reliable functioning of the waterways and the water systems as a whole. At the same time, there will be a transition to green and energy-efficient solutions in the coming years.

The project consists of three parts relating to recreational and professional navigation:

Evaluating the existing infrastructure and identifying optimisation potential
Testing new technologies
Developing investment plans, tender procedures and business cases

Why

Pumps account for a large share of carbon emissions in NWE and account for roughly 25 to 33% of the annual electricity consumption of the water authorities. This equals 20% of the total CO₂ emissions in NWE.

GreenWIN is contributing to an energy-efficient North-West Europe by developing low-CO₂ technology, making it available to water authorities in NWE and actively promoting this technology. The safeguarding of knowledge also plays a role. The experts involved in the construction have now retired and work needs to be done on a new (international) network in this field.

Project period

2018 - 2022 (extension requested till mid 2023)

Update

The project was heavily impacted by Covid which resulted in low activity for more than 1 year. A further extension of the project till June 2023 is requested. The test bench in Liège has been finished and started testing two pumps from Waterways Ireland in December 2021. Transport of the pumps from Canal and River Trust UK to Liège has been delayed.

Furthermore the Greener Pumping Toolkit (GPT) is under development and now awaiting input from the test bench results. It is expected to become a very useful tool for WMO's looking to reduce their 'green footprint' regarding pumping.