As electric vehicles are now commonplace, the next frontier to conquer is water transport. This is the thinking of the engineers at Norwegian chemical firm, Yara International, which has developed a battery-powered vessel named Yara Birken.
The ship is autonomous, meaning it will guide itself to its destination without human intervention.
Yara made the electric cargo ship through its subsidiary, Yara Marine Technologies. It aims to combat pollution produced by marine diesel engines. The subsidiary has been working on the ship since 2017.
The electric ship has a 7 MWh battery, with two 900 kW Azipull pods and two 700 kW tunnel thrusters, to power the vessel to a top speed of 13 knots. Total cargo capacity is 120 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) or 60 40-foot shipping containers.
Yara Birken will embark on its maiden autonomous voyage later in 2021, from Heroya to Brevik, in Norway. Engineers will monitor its progress from three onshore control centers.
The new ship will eventually be completely autonomous in its operation but will need humans to load and unload. Yara will incorporate autonomous cranes and carriers for moving the containers onto and off the ship.
Using a battery on the Yara Birken will impact the environment positively as it will eliminate pollution that is the equivalent of 40,000 truck trips per year.
While Yara has not revealed such plans, an electric ship the size of Yara Birken is ideal for backing up the grid as it can power many homes using vehicle-to-grid technologies.
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