ABP, the UK’s leading port operator, has celebrated one year since the launch of its Energy Ventures Accelerator (EVA) initiative by bringing together hundreds of climate tech innovators, investors, corporates and public officials at the EVA Expo in London.
Building on the success of a series of regional EVA Innovation Days in Hull, Cardiff and Southampton, the EVA Expo was the initiative’s largest event yet. It was hosted at the Royal Institution, an historic venue where foundational scientific discoveries have been made over the past 200 years.
As part of the packed agenda on the day, guests across the startup, VC, corporate VC and civil service communities heard from two keynote speakers - Juergen Maier, Chair of GB Energy and Kanishka Narayan, MP for Vale of Glamorgan. The day also featured a series of expert panel discussions exploring the different stages of the lifecycle of a startup - from technology development, through early deployment into full commercialisation and then industrialisation.
Henrik L. Pedersen, ABP’s CEO, commented: “Our ports are a lot more than gateways for trade, they are also enablers of the energy transition. Our EVA initiative re-frames how ABP’s port infrastructure, land and commercial ecosystem can add value to both our existing customers and to future customers as well. Over the past year, we have been delighted to see so much interest from organisations across the heavy industry, energy generation and transport sectors.”
ABP’s Energy Ventures Accelerator was launched in 2024 and has been supported by Plug and Play UK. The programme provides a way for ABP to explore partnership opportunities with high potential clean energy hardware startups. EVA complements ABP’s sustainability strategy, ‘Ready for Tomorrow’, which sets out ABP’s target of achieving Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations by 2040, as well as supporting ABP customers’ own decarbonisation ambitions.
Max Harris, ABP Group Head of Strategy and Sustainability, who leads the EVA initiative, said: “I am very proud of the progress we’ve made over the past twelve months. We’ve expanded ABP’s reach into the vibrant innovation ecosystem of startups, investors, corporates and government agencies.
“We’ve identified a number of commercial partnership opportunities with great startups across our portfolio of 21 ports, and now we turn our focus to supporting the industrialisation of promising technologies alongside our corporate and investor partners. I’m excited about what’s to come.”
The EVA Expo also featured a selection of pitches by promising startups in the clean tech space, including Seabound, Blastr Green Steel and HiiROC. Earlier this year, ABP announced its intention to explore a potential collaboration with Seabound and STAX Engineering to capture ships’ emissions at berth at the Port of Southampton.
More recently ABP, HiiROC and PX Group have signed a strategic collaboration agreement to develop a new hydrogen production plant at Saltend Chemicals Park to meet local industrial demand. The proposed plant will use HiiROC’s proprietary technology to produce affordable, low carbon hydrogen.
HiiROC Founder and CEO, Tim Davies, said: “We’ve been working with ABP since the start of the EVA initiative and are delighted to now be in a position to pursue a significant commercial opportunity in Hull, where we are headquartered. For us, EVA has unlocked access to ABP’s excellent sites and industrial customers, which has been a strategic advantage.”
