Havyard and Havila Kystruten informed that their hydrogen-powered coastal route operations will receive over NOK 100 million in funding from Pilot-E. The initiative can lead to ships with up to five times longer zero-emission voyages than current ones or planned vessels.
In Pilot-E, the Research Council of Norway, Innovation Norway and aim to achieve zero-emissions from maritime transport 2.0. For this reason it awarded NOK 104.3 million for the Zero-Emission ROPAX Vessel project.
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This project aspires achieve zero-emission operations in the World Heritage Fjords and along parts of the new coastal route’s ordinary route, by using batteries and hydrogen fuel cells.
More specifically, the project aims to a high-capacity hydrogen energy system and begin using it on board one of Havila Kystruten’s coastal route vessels.
With hydrogen, Kystruten’s vessel can sail half the coastal route from Bergen to Kirkenes without any emissions. This means that the voyage through UNESCOS’s World Heritage Fjords will be totally emission-free.
The system will be installed on board and be in operation by the end of 2022.
Kristian Steinsvik, head of Havyard’s R&D, stated:
With FreeCO2ast, we want to create a technology involving hydrogen and batteries that enables large vessels to sail with zero emissions over long stretches and at high speed
During November, the Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) released a new legislation for review aiming to reduce emissions and discharges in the fjords. Namely, it proposed even stricter regulations to ensure a better environmental footprint in the area, by cutting emissions.
The new legislation for reduced emissions and discharges regard the Nærøyfjord, Aurlandsfjord, Geirangerfjord, Sunnylvsfjord and Tafjord. The proposal includes stricter sulphur requirements for the entire area, stricter requirements for NOx emissions, prohibitions against the discharge of sewage, regulations on the use of scrubbers and requirement for an environmental instruction.
