Offshore Charging
Magonis MagBuoy
When we look at commercial coastal vessels, or Domestic Commercial Vessels (DCVs) in Australia and New Zealand, we can see that the operational profile for some vessels makes them harder to electrify. Typically these are ones that have a need to make long-distance trips to sea, often for days at a time, and in addition might have significant energy requirements during those trips. Some examples are:
Coastal cargo transporters (i.e. to nearby islands).
Long-distance ferries.
Deep sea fishing vessels.
Offshore supply vessels (OSVs).
Survey vessels.
Aquaculture wellboats and feeder barges.
If we take a step back we can look for new ways to support these operations without needing to exactly replace the fossil-fuel powered powertrains we have today.
One option is to consider how we can charge battery-electric vessels offshore, without needing to bring them back to their home port dockside charger.
EDITED (17/10/2023): Added Shape Energy’s Powerblok solution to the grid protection/isolation section. Also added Kempower to a number of sections.
EDITED (13/11/2023): Included a reference to Oasis Marine Power’s successful test of power transfer from their buoy to a vessel.
EDITED (17/11/2023): Included video of OPT’s WAM-V autonomously docking with a prototype offshore charging buoy.
EDITED (30/11/2023): Added news about MJR Power & Automation’s offshore charging solution being used by Damen’s new SOV design.
Onshore Power
Before we consider offshore solutions, it is worth reviewing what sort of shore based charging solutions exist today for DCVs that are going battery-electric.
Grid Protection/Isolation
Adding numerous charging stations, especially fast DC chargers, to a port, harbour or marina does not guarantee that the power will be available to make them work. Nor does it mean that the energy being provided is necessarily from renewable sources.
One option for a port/harbour authority or marina manager that is looking at handling increased electrical demand is to provide some degree of protection for the grid, or isolation from the grid, by creating renewable energy locally and/or providing a big enough battery array that peaks in power demand can be smoothed by the batteries rather than falling onto the grid.
MJR Power & Automation QuayPower
MJR Power & Automation have created a containerised solution to help integrate ships’ electrical systems with shore power in a controlled and well managed way.
Wärtsilä Shore Power Container
Wärtsilä offer alternative marine power (AMP) solutions like their Shore Power Container which supports large vessel cold ironing or charging without putting undue pressure on the local grid.
Zenobē Second-Life Batteries
Zenobē offers battery solutions that refurbish used electric vehicle (EV) batteries and gives them a second-life as grid power storage. Used by many land-based EV fleets to smooth power use when fast charging EVs so that cheap renewable power can be stored and made available overnight when needed to recharge buses and trucks - Australia’s largest electrified bus depot at Leichardt being one example. They are also trialing their solution at the Port of Antwerp to use it to offer cold ironing for visiting ships without putting undue pressure on the local grid.
Shape Energy Powerblok
Shape Energy have taken their expertise in providing containerised energy solutions and created a large scale containerised battery storage system to help reduce the impact of DC fast charging electric vehicles on the local grid. They have not yet applied this in a maritime environment, but any solution that works for bus/truck fleet charging will also work for many battery-electric boats.
Kempower Power Unit
Kempower provide an end to end system of charging components, and for grid protection/isolation they have their modular Power Unit that can scale up to 600 kW of total charging power.
Onshore Charging
Aqua superPower
Aqua superPower don’t just sell (create they buy them from Tritium and Kempower) fast DC chargers for boats, they also run the network of chargers themselves, allowing marina managers to avoid needing to commit to expensive technology that may not end up a good fit for their marina customers. Aqua superPower have an app that boat owners use to book and pay for the charge, and marina managers have the advantage of having their marina attract more electric boats over time. The Aqua superPower network is well established around Europe and expanding into North America.
Plug
Plug have a similar approach to Aqua superPower in terms of offering fast charging solutions for marinas, but also offer larger commercial vessel shore power (e.g. ferries) for ports and harbour authorities. Candela used Plug’s chargers with their C-8 while setting their distance world record for a battery-electric vessel, travelling 420 nautical miles in 24 hours. Plug source their charging solution from Kempower (see below).
Kempower Satellite
Kempower offer a number of marine charging solutions, from AC to DC, even liquid-cooled and portable chargers! They are also expanding across Europe, North America and Australia/New Zealand.
Faro Powerdock
Faro have a stylish range of battery-electric boats and realised that the lack of dockside chargers is an issue in many places. Their solution to this problem is the Powerdock, a boat garage that not only keeps the boat dry out of the water, but also can charges the Faro5’s battery in less than 3 hours. The Powerdock’s own battery charges in 12 hours of sunlight (even while charging the Faro5).
Energy comes from the rooftop solar panels, and optional wind generators, and the entire system is towable - allowing it to move from berth to berth, even between marinas. The expansive walkway space makes accessing the Faro easy to do, and while it is custom tailored for their Faro5 design, it might well support other small electric boat designs.
Cavotec
Cavotec have an extensive collection of charging systems, from fully manual ones to fully automated ones that are integrated with automated docking mechanisms.
Wärtsilä Wireless Charging
Like Cavotec, Wärtsilä have a number of manual and automated shore charging systems (some of which they partner with Cavotec to create). One of these is their wireless charging system, which combines an automated mooring solution with wireless charging to create a seamless and elegant solution that minimises the potential for human error.
Offshore Power
Existing Design Patterns
The Oil and Gas Industry has provided a design pattern that we can consider when looking at offshore power. A Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring (CALM) or Single Point Mooring (SPM) system is a buoy that performs the dual function of keeping a tanker moored and transferring fluids, from tanker to shore -and vice-versa- via a subsea pipeline, while allowing the ship to move with the waves and wind direction.
Windfarm Connected Power
Stillstrom
Stillstrom are a spinoff from Maersk Supply Service, they are creating an offshore charging buoy concept to support vessel charging at wind farms, or even outside ports. in their case it is mostly to support cold ironing whilst at the wind farm, but it can also work to charge battery-electric vessels.
One scenario for Stillstrom deployment is to place the buoys quite a long distance from the power source - potentially meaning it could also be used in ports to offer offshore charging that is powered by land-based renewable energy sources. This could potentially also allow ports to offer cold ironing to vessels not actually docked in a berth.
Land-Powered Stillstrom System
Orsted Theoretical Overview
Not a solution itself, but whilst working with Stillstrom, Orsted have published a set of theoretical principles of offshore vessel charging that take into account the different types of voltage that might be available, and what that means for the charging infrastructure. They have made this available for public consumption to help others see the sorts of infrastructure that might be required to charge from an offshore wind farm.
Bluewater E-Buoy
Bluewater already create CALM buoys for the Oil and Gas Industry, so their move into offering electrical charging via a similar technology makes sense. MARIN and Bluewater are currently researching the best way to safely setup electric cables for these purposes.
MJR Power & Automation Offshore Power & Charging
MJR Power & Automation in the UK have taken a different approach to the problem of offshore charging. They have implemented a solution that is inspired by the fact that most wind turbines have fixed bases, and the vessels needing to be charged are smaller in size and more maneuverable. Unlike some other designs, their system as a whole is fairly mature, with the software and integration design already well advanced, and testing being done from an onshore installation.
UPDATE: Damen Shipyards Group announced a new Service Operations Vessel (SOV) design utilising MJR Power & Automation’s offshore charging design.
“The product launch of the SOV 7017 E demonstrates that the technology is there to make offshore operations fully electric,” said Mark Couwenberg, Damen Product Manager for Service Operations Vessels. “The reduction in OPEX implied by harvesting energy directly from the offshore wind farm implies a business case for this model.”
Oasis Marine Power Buoy
Smaller vessels don’t need all the bells and whistles of a CALM buoy or single point mooring solution, and the Oasis Power Buoy exists to give a simple charging solution that can support small electric vessel charging from a wind farm, or other renewable energy source.
In November 2023, Oasis Marine Power successfully demonstrated power transfer from the buoy to a Crew Transfer Vessel (CTV), the GXS Viking.
Other Power Solutions
Ocean Power Technologies
Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) have created a compelling vision of offshore power for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs), remote monitoring solutions and other needs. Their current product set includes the wave energy Power Buoy, the solar energy hybrid Power Buoy, and the seabed energy storage Subsea Battery. It would be trivial to integrate a charging buoy for larger manned surface vessels into their system, and it is likely they might consider this in the future.
Update 17 Nov 2023: OPT announced that they have successfully docked an autonomous surface vessel, one of their WAM-Vs with a charging buoy prototype.
Magonis MagBuoy
Magonis is a boatbuilder specialising in battery-electric boats, so naturally they see charging as a potential issue. The Magonis MagBuoy is their answer to the problem of how you can charge your electric boat while moored in a bay, and it works for all electric boat brands. An underwater cable provides connection to the main electrical grid, whilst the buoy makes it accessible away from a special dock. Rather than needing to charge your electric boat when you want to use it, you would find it is always charged if it had been left moored for a reasonable length of time. This allows less use of fast DC chargers, less queuing to get to the fuel dock and less need for fast DC chargers dockside.
If the local bay had a renewable energy resource available, such as a battery system charged by local solar, wind or wave energy, then the grid connection could also be removed. I think some of these around remote corners of Sydney’s Pittwater/Hawkesbury River region, supported by discrete solar arrays and containerised battery storage might work a treat!
Wave Energy
An alternative to mass renewable energy at sea is wave energy, and there are several product designs progressing towards becoming available for utility-scale renewable wave energy. Many of these, just like wind farms, could act as a source of renewable energy at sea. Some of them use floating point absorber solutions that can be deployed with relative ease in deep water, and yet still harvest significant amounts of energy with a relatively small solution.
These could easily be integrated into a system with a charging buoy and subsea (or onboard) battery that would allow vessels to charge from wave power at sea.
The picture below shades in light blue the coastal areas that are regarded as having the best wave energy potential. You can see that Australia and New Zealand have plenty available!
Source: CorPower Ocean
CorPower Ocean
CorPower Ocean’s wave energy converters are some of the most advanced point absorber wave energy designs in terms of technical maturity, with the company now claiming to be at TRL 8. Whilst intended to be deployed in large wave farms of dozens (or even hundreds) of buoys, potentially alongside wind farms, there is the potential to deploy one or more of them alongside subsea/surface battery storage, and a charging buoy to allow vessels to charge locally at sea from almost anywhere.
Bombora Wave Energy mWave
The Bombora mWave system can either be deployed on the seabed (10-25m deep), floating (50m+ deep), or integrated into floating wind turbine bases (50m+ deep). They are massive systems (check the photos to see one cell being transported by truck), so they would need to be installed where a large investment will payoff, and where the sea bottom coverage is not an ecological issue. The shallow fixed option has the advantage of leaving no hardware on the ocean surface - which would make it easier for a vessel to approach a power buoy.
Carnegie Clean Energy Moorpower
Through a Blue Economy CRC project. Carnegie Clean Energy has taken their CETO technology and applied it to an aquaculture feeding barge in order to generate the power needed by the barge from ambient wave energy. It isn’t doing anything more with that energy, but it is easy to see it being stored and provided to visiting vessels in some manner. Whilst this will suit aquaculture farms, there is less need in other use cases and so the solution may struggle to be competitive economically with more generic solutions like the CorPower one.
Summary
Onshore charging is still in its infancy, with many ports (and power grids) unable to handle cold ironing, let alone fast DC charging. However, there are companies like Stillstrom, Bluewater and MJR Power & Automation that are already looking to offer solutions at wind farms.
Wave energy systems may offer solutions for charging around islands and remote locations that have minimal or no electrical grid, and smaller grid-connected charging buoys may well start showing up in bays and lakes as a way of getting energy whilst moored.
Let us know what you think in the comments, or via our LinkedIn page.
