The shipping industry is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gases as it emits around three percent of total emissions as fossil fuel-powered vessels transport cargo around the planet. Even on standby, these ships and boast burn fuel for auxiliary functions, furthering carbon emissions. Danish vessel operator, Maersk aims to cut off the standby emissions by channeling clean and renewable energy through its new offshore vessel charging venture.
A part of A.P. Moller-Maersk, Maersk Supply Service has launched Stillstrom, which will establish the world’s first full-scale offshore charging station for vessels at an offshore wind farm, planned for installation later this year. Stillstrom will be partner with Ørsted, which is a Danish multinational energy company.
The new company will distribute offshore electric charging way to vessels at ports, hubs and offshore energy tasks. Danish for “quiet power,” Stillstrom is a nascent technology spin-out, whose full-scale launch will be the first-to-market in offshore charging, allowing idle ships and boats to receive power from a clean energy source.
Image: Maersk
The venture becomes significant as offshore charging for idle watercrafts is important to enable the decarbonization of the shipping industry. It will allow vessel owners to substitute fossil fuels with electricity while being securely attached to the charging buoy.
Sebastian Klasterer Toft, Venture Program Manager at Maersk Supply Service, said;
Our vision at Stillstrom is to enable maritime decarbonization, by providing the infrastructure that will allow vessels to charge from clean energy when idle offshore. The mission is to remove 5.5 million tons of CO2 within five years of commercial rollout, additionally eliminating particulate matter, NOx, and SOx.
It will be established with offshore wind leader Ørsted in the third quarter of 2022. The first full-scale charging buoy will be integrated into an Ørsted wind farm in the North Sea. It will source overnight power to one of Ørsted’s Service Operations Vessels (SOV), thus assisting the brand’s target of climate-neutral functionality in 2025.
Maersk said that this tech can be scaled up to power larger ships, enabling them to shut down their engines when idling. Both companies, Maersk and Ørsted, are thriving to offer more practical and climate-neutral energy sources to the shipping industry.