Shippers experiment with wind, battery power to navigate tough new rules to combat their role in global warming
- New rule by the International Maritime Organisation banning high sulphur fuel use by ships has sparked era of huge innovation
- Shipping industry must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2050
Shipping companies in Europe and Japan are looking to their past – the wind and the sun – as they anticipate new regulations designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The shipping industry is estimated to account for three per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions. What was once considered a very dirty business is beginning to imagine a much cleaner future. In April 2018, the IMO adopted targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping industry by at least 50 per cent in 2050 compared to 2008.
On August 6, Asahi Tanker, Exeno Yamamizu, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, and Mitsubishi announced the creation of the e5 lab, whose aim is to develop the first zero-emissions tanker ship by 2021, and promote the electrification of the shipping industry in Japan.
Like the auto industry of more than 10 years ago, the shipping industry is now exploring the possibilities of hybrid and all-electric power. On August 1, Norwegian ferry company Color Line launched a 160-metre, plug-in hybrid ship, which can run for at least an hour on its batteries, allowing it to enter and leave port without burning fuel. The American Bureau of Shipping estimates that a ship can use up to 15 per cent of its fuel just entering and leaving port.
On July 8, Marfin Management, a ship management company, announced that it had installed a solar-powered hybrid diesel-electric system aboard the 200 metre dry bulk cargo ship Paolo Topic in conjunction with Warsila, a Finnish marine engineering firm.