Countries in the NORA region – Iceland, Greenland, Faroe Islands and coastal Norway – have many things in common with regards to transportation and infrastructure. Small communties and large distances mean expensive tranport and connectivity to the rest of the world.

The region is also heavily dependent on the ocean, thus the NORA cooperation is resolved in its focus on reducing emissions and other pollution from ship traffic.

One of the North Atlantic collaboration projects addressing sustainable sea transport is RENSEA, a project under Marina, which has developed a prototype of a fully sustainable hybrid-generative battery system for sailboats and small vessels.

Ship traffic through the North Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic is expected to increase exponentially in the coming years and decades. While this will create economic opportunities in the NORA region, increased pollution could have a grave impact on the delicate marine ecosystems in the area. Ark Technology has been developing SPEC, a new software solution designed to monitor oil consumption and pollution from ships sailing in the area.

NORA also supports projects aimed at increasing the use of battery-electric vehicles (EVs) in the region. One of these projects is El-mobility, which tested the range of electric cars in the cold climates of Iceland, Faroe Islands and Greenland, and studied social acceptance of this new, decarbonising transport technology.

For the complete article by Páll Tómas Finnsson, refer to Green Growth Web Magazine at nordicway.org.