Zephyrus and Mirai Ships to build fully-electric offshore wind service vessel

Zephyrus Marine group and Japanese shipbuilder Mirai Ships have agreed to build a fully-electric offshore wind service vessel to support operations offshore Japan.

PHOTO: A model of Zephyrus Marine’s zero-carbon fully-electric offshore wind service vessel. Shift Clean Energy

Zephyrus Marine, a collaboration of vessel manufacturers, naval architects, battery manufacturers, is looking to launch a fully-electric mothership that will work as a charging station for other electric wind service vessels.

It will be designed by UK-based design firm Ad Hoc Marine Designs and will feature an exchangeable battery system, which has been developed by Canadian battery company Shift Clean Energy.

The vessel will cater to Japanese wind and offshore vessels upon completion.

This will allow fully-electric Crew Transfer Vessels (CTV) to return to the mothership and replace their spent batteries with fully charged ones. The process will take up to 15 minutes unlike the conventional refuelling that takes hours, according to Shift Clean Energy.

The vessel “can move the needle towards a net-zero shipping industry…while improving the operational cost and reducing the risk profiles within the offshore Japanese wind sector,” Zephyrus’ director Rob Stewart says.

Although this small-scale electric vessel is unlikely to make much of a difference in reducing global greeenhouse gas emissions, it can provide valuable technical and operational experience for developers of bigger electrical vessels.

By Tuhin Roy

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