Maersk Supply Service, part of Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk, and offshore wind company Ørsted have joined forces to test a proto-type buoy that will act as both a safe mooring point and a charging station for vessels, potentially displacing a significant amount of marine fuel with green electricity, to cut emissions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=bbpve4CXXDU&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=MaerskSupplyService
The solution, developed by Maersk Supply Service, will be tested on one of Ørsted’s offshore wind farms in the second half of 2021, and could potentially expand to a wide range of maritime vessels.
The buoy can be used to charge the smaller battery- or hybrid-electrical vessels and to supply power to larger vessels, enabling them to turn off their engines when laying idle.
Upon technical validation and commercial ramp up, the electrical charging buoy has significant potential, short to medium term, to contribute positively to reduce emissions for the maritime industry.,
…Maersk said.
This will happen through displacing tens of thousands of tons of fuel consumed every year in the wider maritime sector by enabling inactive vessels to turn engines off and replace energy consumption and charge batteries with renewable electricity, the parties explained.
Timing for this technology is right as large parts of the global maritime fleet are getting ready to receive shore power in ports. The charging buoy is applicable as a mooring point outside ports, in offshore wind farms, and near vicinity to other offshore installations. Additionally, it will further help limit the increasing vessel congestions and remove air pollution in port areas.
The proto-type buoy has been developed by Maersk Supply Service while Ørsted is responsible for the buoy’s integration with the electrical grid at the offshore wind farm.
The charging buoy tackles a multitude of problems; lower emissions, offering a safe mooring point for vessels, better power efficiency and eliminating engine noise. This is also a solution that can be implemented on a global scale, and one that can be adapted as the maritime industry moves towards hybridisation and electrification,
…says Jonas Munch Agerskov, Managing Director for Offshore Renewables at Maersk Supply Service.
Ørsted has set the ambitious target of having carbon neutral operations in 2025, which includes the operations of our offshore wind farms,
…says Mark Porter, Senior Vice President and Head of Operations at Ørsted Offshore.
For the demonstration phase of the project, Maersk Supply Service has received one of the largest EUDP grants (Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Programme, under the Danish Energy Agency) in 2020 supporting with DKK 22mn to the engineering and demonstration of the power buoy. The Danish Maritime Fund has provided initial co-financing to conceptualise the project.
