Maersk Supply Service Launches New Offshore Charging Station Company

Maersk Supply Service has announced plans to launch an offshore vessel-charging company to help support maritime industry’s decarbonization efforts by eliminating idle emissions.

The new company, called Stillstrom, meaning “quiet power” in Danish, will operate what is said to be “the world’s first full-scale offshore charging station” for vessels at an offshore wind farm operated by Ørsted. Installation is scheduled for later this year.

The charging station will be the first-to-market in offshore charging, enabling idle vessels to power from clean electricity.

“Offshore charging for idle vessels is critical to facilitating the decarbonization of the maritime industry, since it allows vessel owners to replace fossil fuels with electricity while being safely moored to the charging buoy,” Maersk Supply Service said in a press release.

The first full-scale charing buoy is planned to be demonstrated with Ørsted in Q3 2022. The power buoy will supply overnight power to one of Ørsted’s Service Operations Vessels (SOV), supporting Ørsted’s target of climate-neutral operations in 2025. Ørsted will be responsible for the grid integration of the charging buoy.

The charging buoy itself will be large enough to charge an SOV-sized battery, or hybrid-electric vessel. The same solution can also be scaled and adapted to supply power to larger vessels, allowing vessels of all sizes to turn off their engines when lying idle. By substituting fossil-based fuels with green electricity, virtually all emissions and noise pollution are eliminated while the buoy is in use, according to the companies.

Stillstrom will be fully owned by Maersk Supply Service, part of A.P. Moller-Maersk, and has received funding support from the Danish Maritime Fund and Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program (EUDP).

“Stillstrom is part of our commitment to solving the energy challenges of tomorrow,” says Steen S. Karstensen, CEO of Maersk Supply Service. “By investing in this ocean cleantech space at an early stage, we can help lead the green transition of the maritime industry. Stillstrom has been developed within Maersk Supply Service and the timing is right to create a venture that will be focused on delivering offshore charging solutions.”

“Our vision at Stillstrom is to enable maritime decarbonisation, by providing the infrastructure that will allow vessels to charge from clean energy when idle offshore,” adds Sebastian Klasterer Toft, Venture Programme Manager at Maersk Supply Service. “The mission is to remove 5.5 million tons of CO2 within five years of commercial rollout, additionally eliminating particulate matter, NOx, and SOx.”