Docked in the port of Luleå, on the north coast of Sweden, a tug called Vilja is about to test a new technology brought from in Trieste, Italy. That’s where Finnish energy company Wärtsila has built a “hybrid centre” to test and develop batteries and energy storage systems. Forget EV innovation at Toyota or BMW: these hybrid engines are designed for ships.
Until now, explains Giulio Tirelli, director at Wärtsila Italy, batteries were fitted on ships as emergency energy supplies. “This is a second generation of hybrid, where you integrate the battery in the engineering and production of the engine,” he says. “The batteries are no longer an add-on; they are built together with the engine to optimise power production.”
The result is a sort of “two-in-one” motor overseen by an Energy Management System (EMS) – software that controls the power supply coming from both mechanical and electric engines.
This won’t change the way the captain steers the ship, says Guido Barbazza, president of Wärtsila Trieste, “but, meanwhile, the system will be working continuously to select the best operating mode to pull and tow the vessel”.
For example, in a rough sea, the ship follows wave movements, which puts pressure on its propellers to constantly change the amount of power they produce – a phenomenon known as load fluctuation.
But in Wärtsila’s dual motor, the EMS lets batteries compensate for those fluctuations, allowing the engine to work steadily.
This means fewer maintenance checks, fewer emissions, and stable fuel consumption. Tirelli estimates that this reduces operating costs by about 25 per cent, with some variations depending on the type of vessel. And the company doesn’t want to stop there.
“The conventional diesel engine has always been at the heart of the power production solution,” Tirelli says, “but nowadays it is only one of the components. We are looking at reducing its role, and increasing that of other sources like solar power.”
The company is wary of setting time targets for the future, but Barbazza says that it is aiming to eventually achieve energy generation that is entirely renewable. The start of a new chapter in the maritime industry.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
