Bibby Marine announced the awarding of funding from the Zero Emission Vessel Infrastructure (ZEVI) competition with plans to build the world’s first zero-emission electric service operation vessel (eSOV).
As explained, the announcement made on 11th September, at London International Shipping Week, sees the Bibby Marine led consortium of Port of Aberdeen, Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, Kongsberg, DNV, Shell and Liverpool John Moores University working in collaboration. The award comprises of match funding to build this pioneering vessel – the first of its kind and a huge step towards achieving the marine industry’s net-zero ambitions.
The eSOV, with a powerful battery system and dual fuel methanol engines for back up, along with associated shore-charging facilities, will showcase leadership in UK content and design, deliver emission and cost savings.
We are excited to receive this funding and to work with our partners to launch the world’s first eSOV – the first new vessel for Bibby Marine in five years. This project is the natural progression of our decarbonisation journey, which began in 2019, to find the right solution to achieve our net-zero goals.
…Bibby Marine CEO, Nigel Quinn said.
The ground-breaking project has far-reaching implications for the industry. With nearly 40GW of new offshore wind capacity to be added in the UK alone by 2030, equating to between 62 and 149 vessels, there is a clear need to develop and implement innovative solutions. The eSOV will help accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy and our learnings from this project will help inform and shape the learnings for the rest of the industry.
Andrew Macdonald, Director of Development and Operations at ORE Catapult, said: “We are delighted to be supporting Bibby and partners in a project to create the world’s first zero-emission e-SOV – delivering a vessel capable of operating solely on 20MWh of batteries.”
At DNV we are very pleased to have been chosen as the preferred classification partner for the first zero-emission UK e-SOV. We look forward to working closely with Bibby Marine and the consortium partners on this innovative design.
…said Lucas Ribeiro, Regional Manager, Region West Europe at DNV.
