World’s first full-scale offshore vessel charger to launch this year

Maersk Supply Service and Ørsted plan to launch the world’s first full-scale offshore charging station for vessels, at an offshore wind farm, in the third quarter of 2022.

As part of the project, Maersk Supply Service has now launched its offshore vessel-charging venture, Stillstrom, to support the decarbonisation of the maritime industry by eliminating idle emissions.

Stillstrom, meaning quiet power in Danish, is an early-stage technology spin-out, whose full-scale product launch will be the first-to-market in offshore charging, enabling idle vessels to power from clean electricity.

The new company will deliver offshore electric charging solutions to vessels at ports, hubs, and offshore energy operations, Maersk Supply Service said.

Offshore charging for idle vessels is said to be critical to facilitating the decarbonisation of the maritime industry, since it allows vessel owners to replace fossil fuels with electricity while being safely moored to the charging buoy.

”Stillstrom is part of our commitment to solving the energy challenges of tomorrow,” said 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.”

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

Ørsted intends to make publicly available any intellectual property generated during the design of the buoy’s integration into the offshore wind asset, to maximise the potential uptake of this carbon-reducing innovation across the offshore wind sector.

The charging buoy itself is large enough to charge an SOV-sized battery- or hybrid-electric vessel. The same solution will be scaled and adapted to supply power to larger vessels, enabling vessels of all sizes to turn off their engines when lying idle.

”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. The mission is to remove 5.5 million tons of CO2 within five years of commercial rollout, additionally eliminating particulate matter, NOx, and SOx,” said Sebastian Klasterer Toft, Venture Program Manager at Maersk Supply Service.

Stillstrom is fully owned by Maersk Supply Service and has received funding support from the Danish Maritime Fund and EUDP.