Introduction
Heating, transportation, concrete production, fertilizers, clothing, toys—everything we produce and consume depends on (fossil) energy. However those sources are running out. According to Our World in Data, the world reserves (in 2020) for the three major fossil fuel types (oil, coal and natural gas) was respectively 56 years, 139 years and 49 years left. (2) And its consumption is still increasing.
One of the sectors where there is large fossil fuel energy demand is the marine sector. Cargo ships, ferries, fishing vessels, patrol boats… These vessels are powered by diesel engines. And the number of vessels are growing. According to UNCTAD (3), there are more than 105,000 ships globally with at least one hundred gross tonnage, consisting of oil tankers, bulk carriers, ferries, and cargo ships. Most ships transport goods like livestock, toys, clothing and heating fuel (LNG). This made the world commodities accessible to its consumers. However, it also has driven emissions with it. Our World in Data estimated that global emissions from transportation accounted around one-fifth of the world’s total emissions where shipping alone is responsible for almost 11 percent of total transport emissions (4).
Future of marine transport
Under the Paris agreement, world leaders agreed to stay below 2°C rise in global temperature, ideally 1,5°C according to historical global temperatures. With that framework in mind, the International Maritime Organization developed a strategy to decarbonize and reduce the marine sector’s emissions to net zero by 2050. (5)
One of the workable solutions is to electrify the marine sector where technically and economically possible. For example, the first hybrid-electric fishing boat was built by a Norwegian company Selfa Article in collaboration with Siemens in 2015. The fishing boat, named “Karoline” functions with a 500-litre diesel engine and two battery packs with a total capacity of 195 kWh. This hybrid-electric boat saves 70% of diesel fuel compared to a traditional fully diesel-powered boat. (6) (see figure 2)
“Having a fishing boat, equipped with an electric engine and at least 100 kWh of total battery capacity, could be a new asset for both fishers and utilities”, must have thought the Canadian software company Bluegrid (former ‘Rimot’). Their headquarters is located in the province of Nova Scotia, which has a fishing large domestic fishing industry. (7)
They came with a concept and the world first vessel prototype in collaboration with ABCO (1) where electric (fishing) vessels, equipped with battery packs and a charging system similar of electric vehicles, could provide the local utility grid during peak hours or emergency situations while in periods of overproduction and low consumption, the vessels can charge their batteries again (Bidirectional charging). This could benefit the grid with more flexibility and stability and for fishers, it is an extra income during off-season. This was already proven with electric vehicles (Vehicle-to-grid). Prousalidis et Al, 2014, refer the principle as “cold ironing” (8) while “ironing” refers to shorepower, where ships can connect to port grids and switch off their diesel engines while the ships equipment is in function.
Challenging technology
However, the technology is not fully integrated and there is still more development underway. For example, regulatory barriers, economic barriers, lack of knowledge or lack of existing technology as of the required power needed to charge one vessel: things are challenging. Luckily, a promising charging system standard called the “Megawatt Charging Standard,” presented in Oslo, in 2022 (9)(10) (see figure 3) could force a breakthrough in heavy machinery power supply, especially because of the ISO 15118-20 protocol integration of MCS. Companies as ABB and Cavotec developed a market-ready product version of the MCS plug. (11)(12) However, the MCS will currently remain for short and medium distances, depending on the battery capacity of the used vehicle/vessel/aircraft…
Conclusion
The concept of Vessel-to-grid has been proven with a prototype. Yet, it is a matter of time, money, regulations, and well skilled engineers to scale this solution up so that a global fleet of zero emissions vessels (in hydrogen, bio-LNG, electricity, methanol…) will exist.