ELIRE Infra, a revolutionary innovation company, operating at the intersection of infrastructure, mobility and clean energy, has announced its pioneering ‘Smart Hubs’ – modular, multi-purpose and scalable infrastructure solutions, designed to accelerate decarbonisation across ports, harbours, waterways, and the industries they support.
ELIRE Infra’s Smart Hubs address critical infrastructure challenges by offering a sustainable, scalable and commercially viable solution that bridges the gap between innovation and practical application. They are tailored to help clients achieve decarbonisation and net-zero goals while also future-proofing operations for emerging technologies and evolving energy demands.
Unlike traditional floating infrastructure commonly known as ‘pontoons’, ELIRE Infra’s Smart Hubs are agile and designed to be flexible and customisable for a variety of industries, including ports, cruise lines, shipping, logistics, and energy. The ingeniously engineered and designed platforms, facilitate maritime shoreside energy connections, support renewable energy projects and provide adaptable infrastructure for the future of clean transport.
Floating infrastructure isn’t a new concept, the market for floating platforms is growing rapidly, and was valued at $10.8 billion in 2023; it is expected to reach $18.5 billion by 2030. However, traditional platforms often serve a singular function and are sunk in waterways when no longer required. ELIRE Infra’s Smart Hubs, on the other hand, offer an enduring, multi-functional solution designed to evolve with industry demands.
The increasing impact of climate change has seen governments implement stricter regulations aimed at industries reducing emissions, with global sustainability targets set for 2050. Ports and harbours, vital nodes in the global supply chain, facilitating the movement of goods and commodities across continents, and; key to efficient trade and the global economy, are at a crossroads, with over 70% of total global city infrastructure yet to be designed for the future, which requires significant investment to address aging facilities, capacity constraints, and the demands of new technologies. Many also face regulatory changes, necessitating substantial upgrades and investments Currently, less than 5% of total new energy, mobility and transport investments globally are in infrastructure/ports and port tenants plan to spend £163bn between 2021 and 2030 in the US alone (Source: American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA), and the world will need to spend over£30T in new infrastructure by2030 (£2Tp.a.) to meet demands and targets. (Source: *McKenzie)
To meet the 2050 target, the expansion of ports and harbours with traditional infrastructure is not only expensive, but time-consuming and comes with a significant environmental impact. This means cities and ports need affordable, future-proof infrastructure solutions that can transition with new technologies and are quick to deploy, with minimal disruption to business continuity and the environment.
Aligned with eight UN Sustainability Goals, the state-of-the-art Smart Hubs offer cost-effective and sustainable long-term solutions with a lifespan of over 30 years, to address current and future challenges of ELIRE’s clients effectively, simultaneously enhancing the local economy, connecting communities and preserving local habita
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.
With ELIRE’s solution, environmental disturbances are kept at a minimum, with any temporary damage restored upon removal compared to the permanent habitat destruction associated with traditional port expansion.
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.
The central nucleus integrates the components that drive today’s technology and allows for the adoption of the existing technologies in other floating structures by imbuing them with intelligence to ensure longevity, versatility, and compatibility with diverse services and requirements. The Smart Hubs are technology agnostic so they can adapt to current technology and new technologies as they emerge. The hubs are pre-certified and ready to install, allowing for the integration of clients’ specific industry application components, and technical integrations for partners to test the environments.
The modular system is also designed for speed and flexibility, producing different size hubs ranging from 400 sqm to 1600 sqm] that can be constructed from the same components.
Luke Jenkinson, Founder & Group CEO – ELIRE Group said “As a company uniquely placed at the intersection of infrastructure, mobility and clean energy, we design & engineer new solutions for critical infrastructure, playing a key role in the shift towards net zero. The innovative engineering behind our Smart Hubs, combined with the versatility of a unique multi-modal hexagon design, allows for endless configurations tailored to specific cases and locations; ranging from large coastal wind farm assembly setups to smaller last-mile midstream river cargo configurations to reduce CO2 emissions..”
“We conducted a study in partnership with an independent decarbonisation consulting company based in Norway, MH Tech, and discovered that a network of SmartHubs in ten small regions across the Mediterranean including Malta, a location known for its congested roads, could save the equivalent of 10 million tonnes of CO2 over a ten year period, in addition to taking off 30% of HGV vehicles off the roads by enabling logistics via electric waterborne transport.” he added.
Built for containerisation, the connectable transport-friendly platforms can be shipped and moved to the site using containers, and are easily manufactured at local fabrication yards or dry docks; making the journey from off to on-site, not only cost effective and fast but a seamless process that allows for faster deployment, whilst boosting the local economy.
The engineering and design team at ELIRE use digital twin and simulation for the purposes of planning and configuration and for predictive maintenance, and the floating SmartHub infrastructure remains in place regardless of tides, surges and sea level change, building resilience for ports and cities.
Aimed at multiple target audiences including ports, harbours, city waterway authorities, municipalities, cruise lines, wind farm developers, energy companies, military and government bodies across the world, for a range of uses including offshore wind, energy bunkering, shipping, cargo, freight, logistics, power supply, maritime refuelling, land reclamation, Advanced Air Mobility, passenger terminals, disaster relief and rebuild,
ELIRE Infra aims to have 200 SmartHubs supplied across multiple industries around the world by 2030.
To find out more visit www.ELIREInfra.com
