Kick-Off for Project Aiming to Ensure Winter Navigation in Baltic Sea

The kick-off meeting for the winter navigation project WINMOS took place in Helsinki 5-6 November. WINMOS is a project that aims to safeguard efficient winter navigation in the European Union’s northernmost fairways by safeguarding icebreaking resources in a medium and long term perspective and to develop the winter navigation system as a whole in the Baltic Sea.

Functional maritime transports all-year-around is of the utmost importance for the trade within the European Union. 15% of the world’s maritime transportation, or more than 750 million tonnes, is performed in the Baltic Sea. Around 2,000 vessels are on their way in the area at any given time. The sea ice causes huge problems for transport and trade. During a normal winter, there are about 10,000 calls to ports which have ice-obstacles.

The situation in the world is continuously changing. Increasing size and number of vessels; rising fuel prices together with demands for measures to improve environmental performance, e.g. the SECA-directive concerning content of sulphur in fuel and the Energy Efficiency Design Index where maximum engine power is regulated, will all have a significant impact on the winter navigation system.

WINMOS consists of seven different sub-projects that are in line with the Motorways of the Sea (MoS) concept. WINMOS will develop a new technique aiming to improve environmental performance on existing engines. This is expected to reduce emissions and fuel consumption significantly. Desired information regarding icebreaking service logistics will be made available for stakeholders within maritime transport. A new icebreaker will be built within the project. Simulator training facilities and training programs in winter navigation for officers will be elaborated. The project will be completed by the end of year 2015.

The total project budget is 138 million euro and the contribution from Ten-T’s Motorways of the Sea (MoS) budget is 29,6 million euro.

The Motorways of the Sea concept is the maritime dimension of the trans-European network which intends to concentrate on flows of freight on sea-based logistical routes. MoS may also include projects which have wider benefits like winter navigation and icebreaking.

Facts WINMOS

WINMOS is a Swedish, Finnish, Estonian project which is co-financed by the European Commission.

WINMOS consists of seven sub-projects:

• Investigation of the next generation of icebreakers and future needs for icebreaking resources.
• Lifetime extension of a number of older icebreakers.
• Development of fuel injection technology (common rail) to reduce fuel consumption and emissions .
• Further development of management systems for winter navigation and icebreaking.
• Development of simulator training for officers.
• Construction of a Finnish icebreaker.

The total project budget is 138 million euro.

The project will be completed by the end of year 2015.

SMA, November 11, 2013