ELIRE Infra announces world’s first intelligent floating infrastructure to accelerate net zero goals across multiple industries.
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.
The 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 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 $10.8bn in 2023 and is expected to reach $18.5bn by 2030. However, traditional platforms often serve a singular function and are sunk in waterways when no longer required. The 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 and the world will need to spend over £30 trillion in new infrastructure by 2030.
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 habitats.
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.
Luke Jenkinson, founder and group CEO of ELIRE Group, said: “As a company uniquely placed at the intersection of infrastructure, mobility and clean energy, we design and 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.”
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 Smart Hub 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 and energy companies, ELIRE Infra aims to have 200 Smart Hubs supplied across multiple industries around the world by 2030.
