Royal IHC

Royal IHC carries a Dutch shipbuilding tradition that goes back to the middle of the seventeenth century. Today it supplies vessels, equipment and services for offshore work, dredging and wet mining, for customers who carry out complex projects from sea level to the ocean floor.

Part of that work serves the energy transition at sea. In 2025 Royal IHC won contracts to equip two new cable-laying vessels with its cable-lay and burial systems, the equipment that lays power cables on the seabed and buries them.

Royal IHC joined NEON in four work packages: DC grids, electric mobility, medium-voltage charging and the integral model. It saw short- and long-term energy storage as the bottleneck of the transition, because the way energy is stored will decide in which form it is available to the maritime sector. That matters most for vessels that work in coastal waters, such as the dredgers Royal IHC builds. They operate close to densely populated areas and need a lot of power, so they need storage with a high energy density and the lowest possible emissions, with care for people and ecosystems.

Royal IHC contributed its knowledge of shipbuilding and of how the maritime environment affects new technology. It offered to test demonstrator systems in its own laboratory or on board IHC-built equipment, to analyse the measurements, and to take part in NEON's user committee. The research on electric ships produced, among other results, Sachin Yadav's PhD thesis on bipolar DC grids on ships, defended in September 2025.

From the former NEON website

About Royal IHC

In an ever-changing political and economic landscape, Royal IHC enables its customers to execute complex projects from sea level to ocean floor in the most challenging of maritime environments. We are a reliable supplier of innovative and efficient equipment, vessels and services for the offshore, dredging and wet mining markets. With a history steeped in Dutch shipbuilding since the mid-17th Century, we have in-depth knowledge and expertise of engineering and manufacturing high-performance integrated vessels and equipment, and providing sustainable services. From our head office in The Netherlands and with 3,500 employees working from sites and offices on a global basis, we are able to ensure a local presence and support on every continent.
Dredging operators, oil and gas corporations, offshore contractors, mining houses and government authorities all over the world benefit from IHC’s high-quality solutions and services. With our commitment to technological innovation, in which sustainability and safety are key, we strive to continuously meet the specific needs of each customer in a rapidly evolving world

Role in NEON

Royal IHC will actively contribute in the project by joining four work packages. These work packages are: Energy transportation using electricity grids (2), Electric mobility (4), Charging mobility – Medium-voltage charger technology (5) and Integral model (10). Within these work packages, IHC will contribute with its extensive knowledge of shipbuilding as well as its experience with the maritime environment and the effect this has on novel technologies. Additionally, one or more demonstrator systems should be tested in the IHC laboratory and/or on-board of IHC-built equipment. The analysis and reporting of the gathered measurement results is also included in the IHC contribution. Furthermore, IHC will actively participate in the user committee.

Motivation for joining NEON

Related to the NEON proposal, Royal IHC underwrites the necessity to develop knowledge regarding the use of short and long term energy storage due to the energy transition from fossil to more renewable energy sources. The bottleneck of the energy transition, namely the method of short and long term energy storage should be investigated with great detail; as this will determine in which form stored energy will be available for the maritime sector in the future. This is of particular interest for vessel operating in coastal waters, such as the dredging vessels built by Royal IHC. These vessels operate close to the heavily populated areas and have a high power density, thus energy storage with a high energy density is required while at the same time having the lowest emissions possible with the consideration of human well-being and ecosystems.

Royal IHC has the objective to deliver innovative and reliable equipment to clients, aiming to provide clients with the lowest total costs of ownership and highest equipment uptime. Any further development of academic and practical knowledge in the fields which can lead to more sustainable drive systems and a reduction of emissions, such as short and long term energy storage (for use in the maritime environment), is of great interest to Royal IHC and the competitiveness of the equipment and services provided.

Text from the former NEON website (original page).