Developments in the use of renewable energy for shipping

Motorship.com provides a good article on a new collaboration to develop important renewable energy and fuel-saving solutions for the shipping industry.

Shipping renewable energy innovation project is launched

Japan-based Eco Marine Power (EMP) and Blue Star Ferries of Greece, part of the Attica group, are to collaborate on development of renewable energy and fuel-saving solutions.

The two companies have begun a project to jointly deploy and evaluate a range of energy related technologies for shipping including EMP’s Aquarius Management and Automation System (MAS) with an integrated marine solar power system. The project, known as the Blue Star Delos Renewable Energy Innovation Project, aims to make shipping more sustainable through the use of onboard renewable energy and fuel reduction. It will evaluate, in stages, a number of innovative solutions developed by EMP and its strategic partners on-board Blue Star’s ro-pax ferry Blue Star Delos.

Blue Star Delos and sister vessel Patmos already operate a hybrid shaft generator (HSG) active front end frequency converter system enabling the shaft generators to be constantly connected to the ships’ grid, improving power factor and creating lower NOx emissions. The HVAC and engine room ventilation use a frequency converted load dependent management system which lowers fuel consumption and leads to further NOx reduction.

During the initial stages of the project, a marine solar power system using flexible lightweight marine grade panels from Solbian Energie Alternative will be integrated with the Aquarius MAS and real time performance monitoring of the solar power array will be conducted. In addition the fuel oil consumption of the vessel will be logged and emissions data calculated using Aquarius MAS. Aquarius MAS was developed by EMP & KEI System of Osaka, Japan, as an onboard monitoring system with capability for integrating renewable energy systems.

Blue Star Ferries’ technical team will supervise the project with EMP and its strategic partners providing the equipment. Additionally, EMP will be responsible for project management and technical consulting services. EMP director Greg Atkinson said: “This project with Blue Star Ferries is very exciting for Eco Marine Power and for our strategic partners as it will be the first deployment on a ship of some of the technologies and solutions we have been developing over the last few years including our integrated renewable energy systems.”