Bergen, Norway and Richmond, British Columbia, Canada — On June 2nd Havila Kystruten`s passenger ship “Havila Castor” proved it could sail in and out of the Geiranger fjord on zero-emission with help from the largest battery pack installed onboard a commercial vessel.
“This is a milestone for Corvus Energy and a big step for the decarbonization of shipping,” says Geir Bjørkeli, CEO of Corvus Energy “For the first time in history, a large passenger ship has sailed this route silent and emission-free. This proves that technology is ready even for large ships to operate in zero-emission mode for longer periods of time.
Havila Castor is one out of four identical ships built for Havila Kystruten to operate on the coastal route between Bergen and Kirkenes in the North of Norway. The full roundtrip takes 11 days and is an epic journey through some of the most scenic and unspoiled nature. Corvus has delivered a complete 6.1 MWh Orca battery system for each of the vessels.
“The world’s most beautiful coastline now has the world’s most environmentally friendly coastal ship,” says Bent Martini, CEO in Havila Kystruten. “By continuous focus on the environment and the best passenger experience, we have managed to set a new standard for the cruise and passenger industry. The first trip on battery alone went exceptionally well and we see that we can achieve even more by testing and finetuning all the systems onboard. Feedback from our customers has been phenomenal: Sailing in complete silence and hearing the waterfalls and birds singing whilst entering the fjord with steep mountains on every side was for all an amazing experience.
Energy efficiency has been key through the entire design phase. Ship design, equipment and smart control systems are mainly delivered by the HAV Group and its subsidiaries:
HAV Design has done the ship design, Norwegian Greentech has delivered the low energy, low footprint ballast water cleaning system, Norwegian Electric Systems has been system integrator and supplied the hybrid gas-electric propulsion system inclusive batterysystem, generators with complete switchboards, trafos, frequency converters and control systems in addition to the new Raven INS™.
The Raven INS is a fully integrated bridge system included smart features such as data hoarding and analysis to continuously develop better and more efficient operations.
The propulsion system onboard all four sister vessels are also prepared for the installation of next-generation technology using hydrogen and fuel cells by HAV Hydrogen
Th entire trip from the city of Ålesund and back took 9 hours where more than three hours were on battery only. Feedback from Havila technical personnel on board was that the battery performed beyond expectations. After three hours on battery only, they had close to 40% of the battery capacity left which means four hours is no problem.
The energy storage systems along with all other environmental technologies on the ship reduce CO2 emissions by around 30% and NOx emissions by 90%. With the gradual blending of biogas, emissions of CO2 will be reduced to 50% in 2023 and 80% in 2024.
Havila Capella, Castor`s identical sister ship, won “the Next Generation Ship Award” during Nor-Shipping in Oslo earlier this year due to its groundbreaking design. Read about the 7 reasons why here:
The last two ships, Havila Polaris and Havila Pollux, will be delivered to Havila Kystruten by end of this year.
Caption: Havila Castor is the first passenger ship to sail silent and emission-free into a world heritage fjord. (Photo Havila Kystruten)
Caption: Sailing into the beautiful Geiranger fjord in Norway on battery only (Photo Corvus Energy)
About Corvus Energy
Corvus Energy is the leading supplier of energy storage systems (ESS) for maritime, offshore, subsea and port applications. Corvus Energy offers a full portfolio of ESS suitable for almost every vessel type, providing high power energy storage in the form of modular lithium-ion battery systems. The purpose-built, field-proven battery systems provide sustained power to hybrid and all-electric heavy industrial equipment, including large marine propulsion drives. Corvus Energy has unsurpassed experience from 600 projects, totaling over 500 MWh and more than 4 million operating hours. The company also develops maritime hydrogen fuel cells in collaboration with the world leader in fuel cell technology, Toyota Corporation.
For more information, please visit www.corvusenergy.com
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