Wärtsilä has opened its new technology centre, the Sustainable Technology Hub, in Vaasa, Finland, to contribute to efforts to advance the global decarbonisation of marine and energy through the development of green technologies.
“The speed at which the marine and energy industries are moving to meet decarbonisation goals is accelerating,” said Håkan Agnevall, President and CEO of Wärtsilä Corporation.
“The Sustainable Technology Hub, (STH), a world-leading centre for research, innovation, engineering and manufacturing, marks the start of a new era for Wärtsilä. By taking advantage of innovative technologies that already exist today, we can speed up the development of future-proof engines capable of running on sustainable fuels. We can now demonstrate that a carbon neutral future is achievable.”
The construction of the new centre was announced in 2018 with a total investment of around €250 million. It features a fuel laboratory as well as technology and engine testing facilities and employs 1500 people.
A new Wärtsilä Land & Sea Academy training centre, Customer Expertise Centres for remote operational support, and predictive maintenance systems are available to support customers to optimise their operations throughout the lifecycle of their assets, and to accelerate their own decarbonisation efforts.
Customers, partner companies and academia will be encouraged to use the centre to incubate, test and validate ideas. One collaboration already underway is with the Wasaline ferry ‘Aurora Botnia’, with the vessel, equipped with Wärtsilä’s most technologically advanced services, to be used as a floating testbed for future innovations.
