Larger Energy News

2024 marks another year for development of a biennial WRDA bill—Water Resources Development Act, critical legislation for the Nation’s waterways, ports and harbors. WRDA encompasses a range of issues, from environmental regs to energy use to agriculture and, of course, a focus on projects critical for economic growth.Because these are dynamic and timely issues, Congress and the maritime sector like to keep WRDA on a two-year reauthorization timeline. Indeed, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, December and January, held three WRDA information hearings.

Alma Clean Power, Odfjell, and DNV have this week announced a new milestone in the development of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system.The fuel cell system will be installed on a chemical tanker by the end of 2024, aiming to demonstrate the potential for significantly lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions for deep-sea shipping, the trio said at an event in Singapore."As the maritime industry faces major challenges adjusting to zero emissions over the next decades, fuel cells demonstrate a promising potential for scalable use for longer distances and larger energy needs in shipping.

Corvus Energy announced its newly developed containerized battery room solution has received Type Approval from DNV, confirming suitability for a range of marine applications.The Corvus BOB (Battery-On-Board) is a standardized, plug-and-play battery room solution available in 10-foot and 20-foot ISO high-cube container sizes designed for easy integration with existing ship systems. The A60 battery room container comes with batteries, a battery management system (BMS), HVAC, Thermal Runaway Exhaust…

With passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains US$370 billion for climate and energy programs, policy experts are forecasting a big expansion in clean electricity generation. One source that’s poised for growth is offshore wind power.Today the U.S. has just two operating offshore wind farms, off of Rhode Island and Virginia, with a combined generating capacity of 42 megawatts. For comparison, the new Traverse Wind Energy Center in Oklahoma has 356 turbines and a 998-megawatt generating capacity.

It is “pre-COVID ” April of 2018, and 174 member states of IMO adopt a new strategy to reduce greenhouse gases from shipping. The meetings are considered “urgent” and the target is to reduce carbon emissions in half by 2050. Prior to those “targets” shipping dealt with regulations to address SOx and NOx reductions. Most of which have resulted in limited success due to infrastructure problems and a consideration as a temporary fix.The technical world has responded with low sulfur fuels, LNG, and methanol to work towards the target.

In cooperation with its strategic partners Furukawa Battery and Teramoto Iron Works, Eco Marine Power (EMP) has announced the release of two UB-50-12 hybrid battery packs for ship, offshore and land-based renewable energy projects. These safe, reliable and recyclable battery packs will be available in 2.4kWh and 3.6kWh configurations. Multiple battery packs can be installed together to provide the amount of energy storage needed from small scale installations to larger energy storage projects.

The German expert for lithium-ion battery systems AKASOL and the Norwegian pioneer of maritime energy storage solutions ZEM have worked together on the development of AKAZEM. The result is a unique autonomous IP 67 compliant liquid cooled modular system that can be combined in a “lego-like” fashion to meet smaller vessels’ space and power requirements up to a 2C power range at costs that opens many new applications. The first joint product, AKAZEM 15 OEM, is a self-contained modular battery unit specifically designed for work boats in the aquaculture industry, fishing boats and smaller passenger ferries. This self-contained 24kWh IP 67 system is likely to become a game changer…

Britain's Rolls-Royce Plc said it would sell its energy gas turbine and compressor business to German conglomerate Siemens AG for 785 million pounds($1.33 billion). Rolls, whose energy gas turbine and compressor business has around 2,400 employees, said Siemens would pay a further 200 million pounds for a 25 year licensing agreement granting access to relevant Rolls-Royce aero-derivative technology. "This agreement will give the Energy business greater opportunities as part of a much larger energy company and allows Rolls-Royce to concentrate on the areas of business where we can add most value," Rolls-Royce Chief Executive, John Rishton said in a statement.