2026 has opened with a renewed wave of geopolitical and economic uncertainty and many in the maritime community can be forgiven for feeling the adrenaline. Yet, it’s important to take stock of industry and regulatory developments over the past 12 months to recognise the opportunities ahead.
For most of 2025, maritime attentions were focused on the Net Zero Framework and what the International Maritime Organization’s proposals would herald for global shipping. The outcome of last October’s meeting of the Maritime Protection and Environmental Committee drew a sharp intake of breath for many shipping stakeholders as hopes of greater clarity around alternative fuels were dashed.
For the energy efficiency technology market and its fuel agnostic players, this meant that the critical role of how their solutions reduce fuel consumption became central to the maritime conversation with greater industry understanding that EETs are not “nice to have” but a “need to have” to futureproof tonnage.
This, however, was accompanied by increased scrutiny around the use of multiple EET solutions and rising demand for retrofits creating the requirement for greater shipyard capacity.
In recent years, the shipping mindset has shifted from seeking a single “silver bullet” for reducing fuel consumption to accepting a “portfolio” of solutions is required to cut fuel use and emissions. This has naturally led to complex decisions about which technologies are most suitable by vessel type and operating profile and the expected savings that EETs may deliver. According to ABS, answering these questions calls for a comprehensive approach that combines multiple EETs tailored to specific ship characteristics as the most effective way to achieve significant emissions reductions.
In its latest ‘Maritime Forecast to 2050’ report, DNV estimates that a combination of EETs can deliver fuel savings and emissions reductions of up to 16%. It notes the myriad of technologies available but points out that not all are independently verified or available to install at scale with confidence. Turning to installation, according to Lloyd’s Register, while the number of retrofit-capable yards has increased to around 16 shipyards, mainly located in China and the Middle East, retrofit capacity is currently at approximately 465 vessel conversions annually, which is below the projected peak requirement of more than 1,000 conversions per year.
Constraints in retrofit yard capacity have meant that EETs that rely on significant structural modification to vessels are less appealing than those that can be installed easily during planned dockings. At present, the market favours robust naval-architect-led systems, class engagement and verification discipline – the principles Silverstream Technologies is built on.
Despite the above-mentioned challenges, the appetite for EETs is clear. At the start of January 2026 –the number of in-service ships (above 100 GT) with energy efficiency technologies (EETs) onboard totalled 14,189, an increase of 11% from January 2025. According to data from Clarkson’s, some 47% of total in-service tonnage is now equipped with innovative emissions- reducing and fuel-saving technologies.
The volume of EETs installations, including onshore power supply facilities has grown every year since 2018, up 101% from 2019 to 2026 in terms of the number of ships.
And there is more good news. Shipowners contemplating EET retrofits might be able to tap into financial support. Late last year, Singapore’s Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation and leading lenders launched the world’s first ‘pay as you save’ retrofit fund. The $35m Fund for Energy Efficiency Technologies (FEET) is targeted to scale to $500m by 2030 – an ambitious trajectory. The fund seeks to enable shipowners, technology providers, investors, and lenders to share performance risk while providing unsecured financing at competitive costs through an innovative blended finance approach.
Without doubt, the geopolitical environment, and the impact it may have on shipping, is something we will all have to carefully navigate, but we can at least take some comfort from our industry enhanced focus on EETs. That said, we must collectively do more to support shipping’s evaluation of existing EET options.