Hurtigruten announced in a press release that its Sea Zero project recently completed a new testing phase at SINTEF Ocean’s facilities in Trondheim, Norway.
The company said it wants to design a ship that can sail without emissions in normal operation on the Norwegian coast starting around 2030.
“The Coastal Express has sailed the Norwegian coast for 130 years. For us to sail for 130 years more, we need to change the way we sail,” said Hedda Felin, CEO of Hurtigruten.
Among the innovations evaluated were large battery packs, retractable sails, air lubrication systems, contra-rotating propellers and an energy-optimized hull.
“We are learning a lot from these tests, and we now see that many of the ambitious goals in this project can also be implemented in practice,” said Gerry Larsson-Fedde, chief operating officer at Hurtigruten.
According to the press release, the ship design has been refined to be longer, lower and more stable, and it now features two large retractable sails that can be raised or lowered as needed.
The simulations and trials confirmed that the sails alone could reduce energy consumption by 10 to 15 percent.
“For each round, we make changes to optimize the design. Now, the ship is eight meters longer and slightly wider, and the height has been reduced by one deck. This provides, among other things, better stability. We have also gone from three to two sails,” added Larsson-Fedde.
The Sea Zero concept aims to cut energy between 40 to 50 percent compared to today’s ships. With that reduction, batteries charged with shore power connectivity in key ports could make emission-free operations possible.
“With the reduction in energy use we’re aiming for, it’s realistic to fit a battery system with enough energy to allow the ship to sail between charging ports under normal weather conditions,” said Trond Johnsen, project manager at Sea Zero.
Hurtigruten added that it works closely with Norwegian research institute SINTEF and other leading partners to refine the design.
Anders Alterskjær, research manager at SINTEF Ocean, said: “The model tests and analyses performed so far show encouraging results towards reducing the energy demand to the degree needed to enable zero emission operation.”
