Offshore Charging Could Cut Marine Emissions

It is estimated that shipping carries over 90% of the world’s trade, and is currently responsible for around 3% of its carbon emissions along with the emission of other pollutants such as black carbon, nitrogen oxides and nitrous oxide. Because shipping is not part of many treaties agreed between countries and blocs to cut pollution, it is expected that its emissions will continue to grow, while other sources decrease. According to research by Transport & Environment (T&E) and the Marine Conservation Society, by 2050, shipping could be responsible for 17% of all emissions.

One way of cutting these emissions may be to electrify shipping. At the moment, most shipping is powered by diesel, which is one of the dirtiest types of fuel. Changing over to electric power could cut millions of tons of emissions. However, that change won’t happen quickly. There have been some prototypes that try to use the capture of renewable energy to power ships, through solar panels and even windmills, but these tests have mainly been on a small scale, and the amount of energy require that a ship requires to carry a heavy load across an ocean is much larger.

More companies are seeing that offshore windfarms might offer a way to reduce, at least some of the emissions from shipping and provide a way to power electric ships when they become practical. In 2020 there was almost 750 million kilowatts of power generated by windfarms offshore. This number will increase dramatically over the coming years. Power companies are now looking further out to sea to get more regular and stronger winds. If there was a way of recharging ship batteries at offshore windfarms, it would act as an incentive for shipbuilders to migrate to electrical power. There are currently several initiatives currently in development to find a way to do this. If the idea could be made practical, then it would help many types of shipping, not just cargo ships. The vessels that service windfarms could be charged while they operate. Even diesel ships could use the electricity while at anchor instead of using their engines to generate electricity. 

Maersk is one of the companies looking to bring offshore charging to life. Reducing the outlay that the company spends on fuel would provide it with significant savings. Maersk Supply Services has developed an offshore charging buoy concept intended to eliminate offshore idle vessel emissions and facilitate clean offshore charging across multiple maritime sectors. Maersk Supply Service and Ørsted will test a pilot buoy in 2022. The trial will take place an Ørsted wind farm in the North Sea, with the Stillstrom prototype buoy. It is really encouraging to see companies develop technology that could prevent a future problem occuring, while saving themselves money in the process. It is innovative thinking like this that could help prevent the worst effects of global warming.