The maritime industry is moving along surprisingly fast in the development of all-electric ships, and there are already plenty of examples of all-electric ferries. Maersk Supply Service, a part of A.P. Moller-Maersk, one of the largest maritime shipping companies in the world, is taking the concept quite a bit further. The company recently announced that it is launching its offshore vessel-charging venture, Stillstrom, to “support the decarbonization of the maritime industry by eliminating idle emissions.”
“Together with Ørsted, Stillstrom will demonstrate the world’s first full-scale offshore charging station for vessels at an offshore wind farm, scheduled for installation later this year,” the post said. “Maersk Supply Service’s pioneering new company will deliver offshore electric charging solutions to vessels at ports, hubs and offshore energy operations. “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 company said in the press release that offshore charging for idle vessels will allow vessel owners to replace fossil fuels with electricity while being safely moored to the charging buoy.
“The first full-scale charging buoy will, as previously announced, be demonstrated with offshore wind leader Ørsted in Q3 2022,” according to the release. “The 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. 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.”