Yinson celebrates construction milestone for its all-electric cargo vessel

Construction of the Hydromover, a fully-electric cargo vessel with swappable batteries, has officially been kick-started at today’s keel-laying ceremony at the shipyard of Lita Ocean Pte Ltd, Singapore.

The vessel was developed by Goal Zero Consortium partners. Green technology solutions provider Yinson Green Technologies spearheads the Hydromover’s overall programme management and commercialisation, while Seatech Solutions International leads Goal Zero in vessel design and system integration.

They are joined by Shift Clean Energy as battery technology partner; Rina Hong Kong Limited Singapore Branch as classification society; Singapore Institute of Technology and Technology Centre for Offshore and Marine Singapore developing the operational profiles of different harbour craft types through digital twinning of the Hydromover.

The Hydromover was one of the three winning proposals announced by MPA and the Singapore Maritime Institute, to develop and commercialise an all-electric cargo vessel with interoperable swappable battery infrastructure solutions.

The lightweight, 18.5m Hydromover is able to carry cargo up to 25 tonnes (including batteries). The vessel, being all-electric, has zero emissions and targets to achieve up to 50% operational cost savings due to improved energy efficiency and lower maintenance costs. Its battery, when depleted, can be swapped within minutes to minimise operational downtime.

The vessel will also be equipped with advanced vessel management system to provide seamless control to the crew as well as state-of-the-art sensors to enable future readiness of autonomous operation.

Yinson Executive Vice President New Ventures and Technology, Eirik Barclay, said that the vessel was an important contribution to Singapore’s goals for “all domestic harbour crafts to operate on low-carbon energy solutions by 2030 and to halve carbon emissions from these vessels by 2050.”

The pilot vessel is on track to be launched by the second quarter of 2023 and ready for commercialisation in the second half of 2024.

“Decarbonisation of domestic harbour craft is one of the key priorities under the Maritime Singapore Decarbonisation Blueprint 2050. The Goal Zero Consortium demonstrates the maritime industry’s commitment to collaborate and accelerate the electrification of harbour craft in Singapore,” MPA Assistant Chief Executive (Industry and Transformation), Kenneth Lim, said.

“We applaud the consortium’s effort in pushing ahead the development timeline of the full electric Hydromover and will continue to support the industry to work together to develop and deploy green technologies for the maritime sector.”