In focus: New clean fuel-powered vessels coming to market as investments in renewables and decarbonisation continue

Energy transition developments have not hit the pause button amid the summer vacation season and new updates on investments in renewable energy, decarbonisation, and moving away from fossil fuels continued filling our headlines this week, with all of these efforts from the offshore energy and shipping sectors coming together in an announcement of a hybrid vessel dedicated to transporting offshore wind-generated electricity.

Namely, Japanese company PowerX has unveiled plans to design and build an automated Power Transfer Vessel, called Power ARK 100, to carry electricity from offshore wind farms to shore.

The 100 TEU trimaran will be equipped with 100 grid batteries that can carry 200 MWh of power, which is equivalent to the total electricity consumption of 22,000 Japanese households in a day.

The vessel, expected to be launched in 2025, will be able to travel up to 300 kilometres when running only on electricity. When powered by both electricity and sustainable biodiesel fuels, Power ARK 100 will be able to transport clean power over much longer distances.

In the Asia Pacific region, another new vessel design was introduced this week by the South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), which has secured the approval in principle (AiP) from DNV for the basic design of its ammonia fuel-ready very large crude carrier (VLCC).

The design’s hull structure, fuel tank specifications, and risk assessment enable ships propelled by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and diesel fuel to be converted into ammonia fuel-powered vessels in the future, according to Samsung Heavy, which expects its solution to help companies that are considering the conversion of oil tankers into ammonia-fuelled units.

This week also saw the first hydrogen fuel cell-powered, electric-drive vessel being launched in the U.S., representing an important step in the country’s maritime industry’s transition to a sustainable future, according to its builder, the Washington-based All American Marine (AAM), and shipowner SWITCH Maritime.

The two companies have now started operational trials of the Sea Change vessel – a 70-foot, 75-passenger ferry that will operate in the California Bay Area – which was developed and constructed to demonstrate a pathway to commercialisation for zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell marine technologies, All American Marine (AAM) and SWITCH Maritime said.

As the shipbuilding and maritime industries continue bringing new clean vessels to various markets, investments in renewable energy projects and energy transition of fossil fuel businesses resume.

From the fossil fuel realm, among the latest news in that about the oilfield services company Wood being awarded a first-ever government-backed green transition loan by UK Export Finance worth $586 million to seize new clean growth export opportunities.

Under the agreement, the company will commit to increasing its clean growth portfolio and significantly reducing its greenhouse gas emissions over the five-year tenure of the facility.

Wood is the first company to access the Transition Export Development Guarantee (Transition EDG), a new facility set up to support UK exporting companies with working capital to invest in low-carbon growth markets including renewables, hydrogen, and decarbonisation.

Looking at the recent investments in renewables sector, one of the more notable is from a consortium led by Canadian Shield Capital in alliance with Hatch, which will pour $20 million into the tidal energy technology developer Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC), with an additional $5 million second closing this fall.

The funds will be used to finance ORPC’s growth including the installation of multiple devices in its targeted markets as well as boosting the company’s business development capabilities. The investment is said to further strengthen ORPC’s ability to meet global demand for climate change solutions, clean energy jobs and environmental and energy justice.