Completed in late 2008, the M/V Auriga Leader is the world’s first cargo ship to be partially propelled by solar power.   The 656-foot, 60,000-ton car carrier will initially transport vehicles being sent for sale overseas by Japan’s top automaker, Toyota Motor Corp, and harness the energy of the sun in order to reduce fuel costs and cut carbon emissions.

Currenlty docked at the Port of Long Beach, officials from the port, Toyota and NYK Line are allowing visitors to come aboard and view the 328 solar panels on the M/V Auriga Leader as part of a demonstration project to help raise awareness about reducing diesel emissions from large ships.

The vessel, developed by Nippon Yusen K.K. and Nippon Oil Corp., is capable of generating 10% of the energy used while the ship is docked with its 328 solar panels on the top deck.  Nippon Yusen has set a goal of halving its fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by 2010.

The panels themselves are not attached to the ship directly, but are rather installed on the ship’s car-carrier, which is capable of carrying 6,400 automobiles, and then connected to the onboard 440 volt electrical network.

The companies hope having the panels on the carrier will protect them from the stresses of the ship’s environment, including salt-water damage, wind pressure, and vibrations.

We first met Hydraulic Marine Systems during our coverage of the International Workboat Show in December and, like the rest of the trade show participants, were amazed by the product. Boiled down, they lease mobile propulsion units that can be readily affixed to a barge or used to provide supplemental power to any vessel with available deck space. This system has already proved valuable for salvage operations with new uses being discovered on a frequent basis.

Here is a video demonstration of the product: [Continue Reading →]

This weeks Interesting Ship is brought to us by MarineBuzz.com:

Thanks to increasing oil prices! Here comes E-Ship 1 from ‘Enercon’, one of the world’s leading companies in the wind energy sector from Germany. E-Ship 1 uses wind energy to cut down fuel costs and also helps to reduce emissions. Unlike Beluga Skysail which uses a huge parasail, E-Ship 1 uses four giant 25 metre high, 4 metre in diameter, rotating, vertical metal sailing rotors positioned two fore and two aft to harness wind energy. The sailing rotors are also called as Flettner rotors.

Here are some interesting features of E-Ship 1:

• Sailing rotors use wind energy to propel the ship and works on the the principle of Magnus effect named after German physicist, Heinrich Gustav Magnus .
• This concept was demonstrated by a German physicist Anton Flettner in 1924.
• The alphabet E stands for: ENERCON, Electro-technology, Environment, Economy, Ecology and the alphabet E also implies: Energy, Earth, Endurance, Encouragement, Experience, Experiment.
• Ship is under construction at Lindenau GmbH shipyards , Kiel and on August 02, ship naming and launching ceremonies took place.
• E-Ship 1 is expected to be delivered by December this year.
• The E-Ship’s main components such as sailing rotors, the highly efficient main engines, and the ship’s streamlined silhouette (above and below the water line) are developed directly by Enercon engineers.
• E-Ship 1 has been designed to cut down fuel costs by 30 percent.
• Technical data of E-Ship 1: [Continue Reading →]

Our friend Jean Pierre de Lutz is building a new boat using green technology and writing about it on his blog. Knowing we are interested in new technology geared toward reducing ship emissions he pointed us to the European Union funded project Wartsila METHAPU. Here are the details:

After nearly one and a half years of research and development, the EU-funded METHAPU (‘Validation of renewable methanol based auxiliary power systems for commercial vessels’) project is about to start trials on a prototype of a methanol-based solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) unit. The protoype will be tried and tested for performance and emissions under real-life conditions onboard a car transport vessel involved in international trade.

According to the independent Norwegian organisation Det Norske Veritas (DNV), one of the five project partners, the world’s fleet of ships is the source of two percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, ten percent to 15 percent of nitrous oxides (NOx) and four percent to six percent of sulphur oxides. DNV specialises in risk management in various areas and operates internationally. ‘Fuel cells represent an interesting possible solution to the problem of reducing local and regional emissions,’ the DNV comments in its report on ‘Fuel cells in ships: safety & reliability’. ‘The technology is, however, still fairly unproven.’

This is what the EUR 2 million METHAPU project, to which the EU contributes EUR 1 million, is set to change: The one-year trial will help to assess the maturity of methanol-based technology and its suitability for daily use in the shipping sector.

You can read the full article HERE.

Just over a month since the “little red ship” M/V Expoloer sunk in icy antarctic waters a second “Eco”-tourism cruise ship has hit an iceberg.

Global-National tells us:

BUENOS AIRES — A Norwegian cruise ship with more than 300 people on board struck an iceberg as it drifted in the waters of Antarctica after an engine failure, Argentine officials said today.

The MS Fram carrying 256 passengers and 70 crew members suffered a breakdown in its propulsion system on Friday, said marine police in the port of Ushuaia on the southern tip of Argentina.

“None of the passengers or crew were injured, there was no reported damage to the hull or spills, and there is no danger of sinking,” a spokesman added.

The ship “was carried into a wall of ice” after it suffered a two-hour blackout in the area known as Browns Buff, north of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The incident was earlier confirmed by the ship’s owner Hurtigruten, which said it had suffered “no major damage.”  Continue Reading…

Header image by Luís Miguel Correia:

We are always on the lookout for “green” stories so were pleased when a friend forwarded a link to Skysails, a German based company looking to augment tradition ship propulsion systems with kites.

SkySails tells us:

SkySails is now offering a wind propulsion system based on large towing kites, which, for the first time, meets the requirements of shipping companies.

 

By using the SkySails-System, a ship‘s fuel costs can be reduced by 10- 35% on annual average, depending on wind conditions. Under optimal wind conditions, fuel consumption can temporarily be reduced by up to 50%. Even on a small, 87 metre cargo ship, savings of up to 280,000 euros can be made annually.

They are not the only company trying to harness the power of wind to propel ship, San Francisco base KiteShip.com a maker of kites for sailboats, is also trying expand into the commercial shipping industry.

“KiteShip is also working on marine applications as diverse as towing oil rigs and other large marine structures, diverting icebergs from oil platforms in high latitudes and in autonomous robot towing of relatively safe cargo such as bagged water,liquid fructose and the like.”

Both companies have tested the technology with (according to them) success. gCaptain will be bringing you more on this story in the future, so stay tuned.

Note: We have updated this post in a comprehensive look at Green Ship Propulsion

Here’s a video showing how the system works;

 

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