Electricity new wave of shipping

Incat is ideally placed for the future of shipping, writes Robert Clifford

THE quest for zero carbon emissions for ships is under way.

Already costs associated with global shipping are rising at an alarming rate. The replacement of heavy fuel oil with low-sulphur diesel fuel has raised fuel costs significantly. These costs have been passed on to consumers in higher freight rates.

Slow steaming of ships to save fuel has also contributed to the rise in costs and delays in supply chains.

The longer-term future for diesel-powered ships is grim. International regulators have everincreasing restrictions on carbon and other machinery emissions. Soon diesel will effectively be banned, as it is not possible to completely eliminate the emissions.

The answer is to find fuels that are more acceptable.

Not an easy task, nor is it a task that will not be without additional costs.

Hydrogen, ammonia, methanol etc are all being trialled by several operators. However, availability and high cost are major barriers to universal use. The marine industry will soon have available liquid salt reactors that are considered safe nuclear-fuel producers. For long-range shipping such fuel may mean that a ship is never refuelled in its lifetime.

Where does all the above leave Incat? It is clear that we must react and re-power our ships. But first we must look at our competitive advantages of the light multitask ships we build today.

Light ships, lighter than other builders’ products, require less power to propel at a given speed. Not only does Incat build light ships, but we also employ very efficient hull shapes. The bottom line is less propulsive power is needed, which places Incat in a good space.

Battery efficiency is advancing rapidly and the vehicle and aircraft industry is taking advantage of the increasing efficiency. The marine industry is also paying a lot of attention to battery-powered ships.

The Scandinavians are the leaders, already with over 50 ships in service producing zero emissions. Today Incat can build ships using tested technology, electric-powered ships suitable for 100-nauticalmile transits. Tomorrow’s batteries are sure to allow much longer transit voyages.

Incat is ideally placed to move forward into the next stage: 40,000 of the world’s ships must reduce their emissions; 5000 Ro-Ros (Roll on Roll off ships like the Spirits) must be replaced; 1000 or more ships are expected to be replaced by Incat or some other builders’ zero-emission product.

The aim is to build as many ships as practical at our Prince of Wales Bay site in Hobart, and when that site reaches capacity we may expand on another site, hopefully in Tasmania.

Make no mistake — electric-powered ships with their expensive batteries will not be cheap. But neither will the alternative fuel-burning ships be without high cost.

The trick will be to produce large numbers of ships in near standard form. This is to keep costs down.

It is a big change over past practice, but a new practice that promises multiple-ship production of high-standard product that thousands of Tasmanian workers can feel proud of the efforts.