Press Release: A new research partnership has been formed to enable zero emission ships.
By combining existing technologies in a new way, we can build ferries that represent a quantum leap for the environment. That is the idea behind a new R&D project involving four major players in the maritime sector: Rolls-Royce, Color Line, Norled and the Norwegian Coastal Administration. The project has now received a NOK 5.9 million grant from the Research Council of Norway’s ENERGIX programme.
The ‘Zero Emission Ferry’ project is intended to result in a new electrical system that not only provides more efficient power output and stable operations, but is cheaper to run, easier to integrate – and has a lower environmental impact. That is no mean feat aboard a ship, which typically has a hybrid system that is a thousand times larger than a hybrid passenger car.
Operational and environmental ambitions
The four partners aim to achieve this by investigating new ways of combining systems for energy storage, energy management, onboard energy distribution and recharging. The work is already well underway, and the two ferry operators have specific goals with regard to the outcome.
“Our aim is to gradually reduce the emissions produced by our fleet of car and high-speed passenger ferries, and become the first Norwegian operator with 100 per cent zero emissions. We are well underway with electrification on our short ferry routes, but are waiting for technology to become mature enough to be able to cover longer stretches. We are therefore delighted to be able to contribute our experience to this project,” says Lars Jacob Engelsen, Deputy CEO at Norled.
“This project is completely in line with our environmental strategy, in which the electrification of the fleet plays a key role. We want to exploit the energy on board more efficiently, reduce the operating time for our onboard machine park and ensure that we cover a larger proportion of our energy consumption from ‘green’ onshore power rather than fossil fuels,” says Johann Martinussen, Color Line’s Superintendent Automation & Control.
More details from Rolls-Royce here
