"Seeing is believing" - a key takeaway from the MBF member meeting

On September 26, the MBF extraordinary annual meeting and member meeting were carried out at the ABB Office in Billingstad, Norway.

There is no doubt that the day involved good discussions and sharing of knowledge & experience from the start.

The day started with the extraordinary annual meeting, where it was voted to update the bylaws. Since the forum was established in April 2014, the forum has gotten increased international attention. The changes reflect the increased international presence and ambitions to make batteries a success within the global maritime industry.

With the title of the member meeting being "Navigating into the future", the program involved topics to reflect this. The forum gave a update on its current activities and the ships with batteries. Jostein Bogen from ABB gave a presentation on fuel cell and ABB's focus on hydrogen/fuel cells, and how batteries play an important role in that sence.

Before lunch, we got to see one of ABB's Marine Centres, where they give live technical support to their customers. After lunch Dag Håvard from Wärtsilä, gave us an insight in the North Sea Giant project and how batteries have helped reduce the fuel consumpotion and emissions of the ship.

The final session focused on what the current challenges of the members are and how the forum can contribute to help solve these challenges. The interactive atmosphere and engagement from the attendees resulted in great discussions and many ideas to work on, moving forward.

Thank you to all participants - hope you found it as valuable as us!