The Havyard project with Havila Kystruten on hydrogen-powered coastal route operations will receive over NOK 100 million in funding from Pilot-E. The initiative can result in vessels with up to five times longer zero-emission voyages than other existing or planned vessels.
In Pilot-E, the Research Council of Norway, Innovation Norway and Enova have joined forces to solve some of society's biggest problems. One of two topics for 2018 was ‘Zero-emissions maritime transport 2.0’, and the Havyard – Zero-Emission ROPAX Vessel project was awarded a total of NOK 104.3 million.
Pilot-E has stated that, with this, Havyard ASA is managing a project with ambitions to achieve zero-emission operations in the World Heritage Fjords and along parts of the new coastal route’s ordinary route, by combining batteries and hydrogen fuel cells.
For several years, Havyard Group has been engaged in systematic development work and digitalisation to create greener vessels with ever decreasing energy consumption and environmentally harmful emissions. Now they have taken this work a big step further through the project FreeCO2ast. Kristian Steinsvik, head of Havyard’s R&D work, says that the project aims to develop a high-capacity hydrogen energy system and to start using it on board one of Havila Kystruten’s coastal route vessels.
With hydrogen energy, Kystruten’s vessel can sail half the coastal route from Bergen to Kirkenes without any emissions whatsoever. This means that the voyage through UNESCOS’s World Heritage Fjords will be totally emission-free.
The system will be installed on board and be in operation by the end of 2022.
Havyard Group is drawing on the electrical, automation and shipbuilding expertise of the whole group in the project, from Norwegian Electric Systems, Havyard Design & Solutions to Havyard Ship Technology. The research institutions Sintef Ocean and Protech are also partners in the project.