Excess Energy News

Sweden’s Erik Thun Group has unveiled its next generation battery-hybrid, dry cargo vessel series being built at Shipyard Ferus Smit in the Netherlands.The Lake Vanern Max is hybrid, with a battery pack for peak shaving and power smoothening, reducing the reliance on auxiliary engines for electricity generation. The vessel is designed to stay at anchor without using auxiliary engines. Shore connection enables clean and silent port operations and allows the vessel to shut down all engines onboard…

Vard Electro’s SeaQ Integrated Bridge solution is being implemented in the offshore wind sector for the first time, following installation on Rem Offshore’s newbuild construction service operation vessel (CSOV) Rem Power to assist in optimizing environmental performance.“We are making strong investments in new low-emission technologies to cut the environmental impact of offshore wind operations in line with increasingly stringent regulations and requirements from clients, banks and other stakeholders…

Covington, La. based marine engineering firm Baker Marine Solutions has unveiled a new service operation vessel (SOV) design for the U.S. offshore wind industry.The new 275-foot (LOA) BMS 1776 is designed be built in the U.S. to ABS class standards and is fully certified to operate in U.S. waters, utilizing U.S. offshore workers, BMS said."With the U.S. offshore wind industry expanding rapidly, U.S. companies must be ready to build SOVs designed specifically for U.S. shipyards to support the installation and maintenance of domestic wind farms," said BMS president Jim Baker.

Classification society Lloyd’s Register (LR) said it has awarded Approval in Principle (AIP) to Norwegian ship owner Egil Ulvan Rederi AS for its zero-emission self-discharging hydrogen-fuelled bulk carrier, With Orca. The vessel is planned to enter into a long-term transport contract with cargo owners Felleskjøpet Agri and Heidelberg Cement.With Orca will be fully zero-emission in all operations. It will be powered by hydrogen, stored onboard in compressed form, and the hydrogen combustion engine will be optimized for increased efficiency.

Integrated automation and energy specialist Høglund announced it has been commissioned to supply advanced, fully integrated hybrid, automation, and digital solutions to two asphalt carriers to be built in Wuhu shipyard, China. The owner, Continental Bitumen, is an integrated procurement, logistics and distribution company supplying bitumen in Europe, Africa and Middle East. The technical manager and operator of the vessels is Tipco Asphalt.The central part of this delivery is the hybrid electric system…

Vard Electro will deliver its largest battery package to date as part of a vessel retrofit deal with the Norwegian offshore vessel owner Siem Offshore.The contract covers Vard Electro’s SeaQ Energy Storage System (ESS) with two battery packs and a DC link, which will be installed in the first quarter of 2022 on one of Siem Offshore’s subsea construction vessels lined up for work in the wind sector.The system will enable the vessel to operate in fully electric mode with zero emissions while maneuvering in the harbor or other restricted areas and will deliver estimated fuel savings of up to 20%…

Marine electrical systems supplier Vard Electro will equip Atlantic Towing's platform supply vessel Atlantic Shrike with a hybrid battery power system."Atlantic Towing is the first company to implement this multiple mode application of battery technologies on a single vessel in the Canadian offshore oil and gas industry," Vard Electro said.Atlantic Towing has received funding for the project through Petroleum Research Newfoundland & Labrador (PRNL) as a component of the offshore research…

The future could be bright for small island nations. Cheap sustainable energy is the core component of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.Engineers like making things, but rarely think of the social impact that flows from their creations. Today, while we are standing at the threshold of sustainable energy, we should take a moment to reflect on the social impact of sustainable energy. Access to sustainable energy puts us at the threshold of massive social change and…

North America is increasingly adopting energy storage systems (ESS) to use in combination with combustion engines or as the sole energy carrier in fully electric-powered systems.We clearly see a transition from ‘consideration’ to ‘execution’ of hybrid and all-electric maritime projects. Stakeholders want to explore how to make vessels more energy efficient and less polluting. Corvus Energy has deployed over half of the ESSs aboard vessels globally, totaling over 300 megawatt hours (MWh).In North America, Corvus has deployed 24 MWh of energy storage capacity, and there are 13 vessels under U.S.

Finnish ship technology and power-plant maker Wartsila said on Tuesday the coronavirus outbreak has caused the share of renewable energy in Europe's power production to increase rapidly.The pandemic has caused demand for electricity to fall across Europe, Wartsila said, according to data it collected and analysed.Countries such as Germany, Spain and Britain have had to temporarily shut down coal-fired power generation, causing the share of renewable energy to increase rapidly in the power mix."Take Germany last week, they actually had over 10 gigawatts of excess energy production because they were still running their coal-fired plants ...

Ammonia, the same pungent solution used in fertilizers and cleaning agents, may one day be the key to transporting renewable energy around the world. There are currently a number of government and corporate projects assessing the feasibility of converting excess renewable energy from sources like wind, solar, tidal and nuclear into ammonia and then back into usable energy.In its purist form, ammonia or NH3 is composed of one nitrogen and three hydrogen atoms making it an ideal candidate to chemically bind excess renewable energy. Like several other chemical compounds, ammonia can be transported by chemical tanker in liquid form to end-users. Based on its near ambient liquification point, it may be more appealing to transport ammonia over longer distances than hydrogen.

Acciona Energia, the biggest global operator exclusively in renewable energies,  received the first ever prototype certificate for a grid-scale energy storage solution by DNV GL, the world’s largest resource of independent energy experts and certification body. The handover of the certificate took place at the American Wind Energy Association’s 2018 Windpower Conference in Chicago. To explore the possibilities of grid-scale storage, Acciona Energia started up a hybrid plant for storing electricity in batteries as part of its grid-connected wind farm at Barasoain in Navarra, northern Spain. The plant in Barásoain is equipped with a storage…

Scandlines has named their newest hybrid ferry, the M/V Copenhagen. As part of Scandlines’ ambitious environmental strategy, the new hybrid ferry will join the world’s largest fleet of hybrid ferries, utilizing a low emission and fuel saving diesel electric hybrid propulsion system powered by a Corvus Energy ESS (Energy Storage System). The M/V Copenhagen is the sixth Scandlines hybrid ferry to utilize a Corvus ESS. This new hybrid ferry will soon join its sister ship M/V Berlin, also powered by a Corvus ESS, in servicing the crossing between Rostock, Germany and Gedser, Denmark. The M/V Copenhagen is 169.5m long and 25.4m wide, providing double the capacity for vehicles (460 cars or 96 transport trucks), and the modern, spacious onboard facilities have enough space for 1,300 passengers.

The second of Scandlines’ two new hybrid ferries for the Rostock-Gedser route was named M/V Copenhagen during a ceremony at the Danish shipyard FAYARD A/S on October 28, 2016. In his speech to the some 180 guests in attendance, Thomas Andersen, CEO of FAYARD A/S, thanked Scandlines for the confidence which the shipping company has shown the yard and he compared the new ferry with Hans Christian Andersen’s ugly duckling that finally turned into a beautiful swan. The new ferry M/V Copenhagen…

GE’s Marine Solutions has signed a contract to provide auxiliary electric systems to containership operator Maersk Line’s second generation Triple-E vessels, thus representing GE’s entry into the container shipping industry. The contract will see GE provide Maersk Line with its new Power Take Off/Power Take In (PTO/PTI) technology, which consists of two drives, two induction motors and a power management system. The solution provides excess power on demand while reducing fuel consumption, GE said.

Scandlines is expected to be awarded EUR 6.3 million from EU for the installation of scrubbers and hybrid system on the two new vessels for the crossing between Rostock-Gedser and for environmentally friendly infrastructure in both port facilities. Scandlines has received contributions through the EU previously for the green conversion to hybrid operation for the so-called Beeline between Puttgarden-Rødby. The European Union's Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) aims to promote more effective cross-border transport corridors. In 2013, as the first ferry operator in the world Scandlines introduced a hybrid system on a large scale, which can store excess energy in batteries on board. But Scandlines' visions of sustainable ferry services go even further.

Those MarineNews readers who are not familiar with Bob Kunkel probably should be. That’s because Kunkel, President of Alternative Marine Technologies, previously served as the Federal Chairman of the Short Sea Shipping Cooperative Program under the Maritime Administration and Department of Transportation from 2003 until 2008. He is a past Vice President of the Connecticut Maritime Association, a contributing writer for many maritime and technical trades publications, including Maritime Professional Magazine and MarineNews.

Greater energy efficiency and safety increasingly determine the selection of electric drives, even at high levels of power. With its IndraDrive CL/ML, Bosch Rexroth now offers a scaled product range of strong drive solutions from 110 kW to 4 MW for applications in metal forming, plastics, test, printing, metallurgy, marine, offshore and other heavy industries. These drives open up numerous opportunities for users to improve energy efficiency, especially through power regeneration.

More than 250 top-level delegates attended trade association Interferry’s 38th annual conference in Malta to debate the major factors affecting ferry operations around the world. Under a new format mixing presentations with panel discussions and audience input, the event underlined the diversity of political, technical, operational and commercial issues challenging the industry. Among several sessions focused on safety, a former airline pilot confirmed the alarming certainty of human error…

A ferry operator’s experience of ‘the fastest ship in the world’ will feature among the cutting-edge initiatives being aired at Interferry’s 38th annual conference in Malta from October 5-9. The trade association event gives South American operator Buquebus a first opportunity to showcase the commercial and technical benefits of its revolutionary newbuild Francisco. Delivered in August from Australian builder Incat Tasmania, the catamaran is the world’s first high speed dual fuel ro-ro to use LNG as its primary fuel. Incat made the “fastest ship” claim after sea trials in June.

The ship is expected to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 4 percent on a two-month voyage to Europe, officials said. The 199-meter-long vessel can carry 6,400 passenger cars. The 768 solar power panels installed on its deck have an output capacity of 160 kilowatts, enough to power 50 average households. Energy is stored in 324,000 lithium-ion batteries below decks and fed through to the engine. Excess energy is used to power the ship’s radar instruments, lighting, air conditioning and other equipment. The Emerald Ace shuts down its diesel engine and relies totally on batteries when in port.

The inherent diversity of the multitude of vessels plying rivers, lakes, harbors and oceans around the world extends past size and shape and type of service - at the heart of each vessel is a propulsion system. Although propulsion systems may often be considered unique, a variety of typical solutions for most types of vessels already exist. In some cases, it may be preferable to simply specify the duplication of an existing propulsion system, allowing a degree of harmonization in the number of required spares, trained mechanics, and maintenance. It would seem, however, that ship owners and operators are placing an increased premium on designs and solutions both unique and innovative, in order to reduce costs and maximize performance.

KEMA, in partnership with civil engineering firm Bureau Lievense and technology illustrators Rudolph and Robert Das, has developed an “Energy Island” concept to store power generated from an offshore wind farm. The innovative concept design is the initial result of an on-going feasibility study being conducted for Dutch energy companies. The Energy Island designed by KEMA, Lievense and the Das brothers incorporates a new concept in pumped hydro storage – an inverse offshore pump accumulation station (IOPAC). On the Energy Island when there is a surplus of wind energy, the excess energy is used to pump sea water out of the interior ‘subsurface-lake’ into the surrounding sea.