The starting signal for fast-charging electric vessels

Beside road and air transport, a significant amount of global CO2 emissions falls on shipping. Towards a climate friendly future, it is essential to find ways to reduce these emissions. In this regard, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has targeted to reduce total annual greenhouse gas emissions from shipping by at least 50% by 2050 (compared to 2008). Electrification of ships is one of the solutions to reach this target.

Within the past years several short-distanced ferries and vessels for coastal transportation have been developed for operating purely on batteries. These ferries operate in a tight schedule with only limited time for charging from shore between the trips.

In order to address these issues, the European Project HYPOBATT has brought together 18 key players from the European maritime sector. The EU-wide pilot project, with a duration of 42 months and funded with 9.35 MEur under the HORIZON 2020 initiative, aims to advance the electrification of ships.

The project seeks to deliver a modular, fast and simple multi-megawatt charging system. This fast charging station will improve energy efficiency by 20%, charger availability by 95% and battery life by 10%. Through an innovative and fully automated connection of the ferry with the port, the ship should be connected to the charging station within 30 seconds after docking. This will reduce the waiting time for charging by at least 20% as well as the number of components and the operation and maintenance costs. Despite the charging power of up to 5 megawatts, the newly deployed technology is intended to minimize the impact on the electrical grid. The project should also contribute to standardizing the charging system in European ports and pave the way for clean, emission-free and competitive transport solutions.

To develop these numerous and challenging HYPOBATT innovations, the project lead by IKERLAN joins forces of eighteen renowned members from 10 European countries from the fields research, academia and industry, including Heliox, Fundacion Valencia Port, RINA, RSTER, BRING, Soermar, Flanders Make, IMECAR, CEA, Rhoe, Stemmann-Technik (Wabtec), TH Ingolstadt, Motus, Frisia, Damen, OtaskiES and University of Strathclyde.

First site visit at Reederei Frisia in Norddeich

Fig.1: FRISIA Port at Norddeich (Copyright: AG Reederei Norden-Frisia)

On 12 and 13 October, the first site visit of all consortium members took place at Reederei Frisia in Norddeich, Northern Germany. Here, the first Hyper POwered vessel BATTery charger (HYPOBATT) is to be built in 2024, all participants met and surveyed the local conditions for the full-scale demonstration phase of the project.

Fig.2: The Consortium (Copyright: AG Reederei Norden-Frisia)

At the project meeting, the technical requirements and specifications were discussed, but also detailed technical questions. In addition to the current technical state of the art, a model of the upcoming fast-charging station was also shown and further tasks were distributed.

Besides internal consortium discussions, the project was also presented to key stakeholders. Now, interest is awakened and the work can begin.

Key Figures:

The HYPOBATT project will focus on the developing of two full modular multi-MW recharging systems in two European ports with fast turnaround times of battery electric ships and easy charging of larger on-board batteries.

18 Partners from 10 European countries

Project Coordinator: Ikerlan s. COOP / Endika Bilbao

E-Mail: ebilbao@ikerlan.es

Start date: 1. June 2022

Duration: 42 months

Partners:

Innovations:

Key Targets:

The HYPOBATT project will deliver a modular, fast and simple multi-MW charging system with short lead times. The following points are in particular focus:

·       Development of a modular multi MW marine charger with fast turnaround times of battery electric ships and easy charging of larger on-board batteries.

·       Development of automated marine charging connection which will minimize the connection time to less than 30 seconds after safe mooring.

·       Reduction of operation and maintenance costs by 20% by innovative charging architecture with less human effort.

·       Standardization of charging infrastructures to achieve interoperability and compatibility.

·       Optimization of daily operation of the multi-MW charger by using a digital twin platform.

·       Minimize the impact on the battery ageing and on the electrical grid infrastructure by adaptive energy management strategies.

·       Demonstration of the performance of the whole charging infrastructure in two European ports.

For more information, visit: Home | Hypobatt