Shipping company Wilson ASA has completed a battery-powered shore power trial at the Port of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Bunkerspot.com reports.
The first test took place on 8 and 9 February and involved the 3,500 DWT Wilson Goolehooking up to a battery provided by Skoon Energy at VCK Logistics’ Waterland Terminal.
The battery can supply green energy anywhere in Amsterdam and is then recharged using local wind energy from Windpark Ruigoord or with energy from biomass from AEB Amsterdam. It is capable of supplying 630 kWh of electricity, the equivalent to at least twelve hours of shore power.
According to the Port of Amsterdam, the test demonstrates it is possible to provide large ships with energy on a regular basis by means of a battery. On locations with a small grid connection, up to 550 kW of peak power can be supplied for longer periods. The Dutch port noted that this had recently been done in cooperation with the Shared Energy Platform, an initiative to increase the available capacity in the electricity grid.
Wilson Eurocarriers sails to Amsterdam on a weekly basis and has already made modifications to 80 of its 126 ships.
‘We think it is important to make optimal use of the possibilities of shore power. Hopefully, this will soon become the standard in all ports,’ said Robert Bravenboer, Director at Wilson Agency. ‘We believe that the sustainability of ports will increase rapidly, and we are happy to contribute to this. We are very happy that we were able to do this pilot in Amsterdam.’
Peter Loonen, Managing Director of VCK Group, added: ‘We value the importance of innovation and sustainability. The battery test is a nice concrete example of this. It’s important to us that we continue to invest in the future to ensure that we can provide more of these types of ships with energy in a sustainable way.’
Commenting, the Port of Amsterdam highlighted the importance of clean shipping as part of its 2021-2025 strategy.
‘One concrete example of how we are working towards this is the provision of shore power at locations within the “ring” road. This is already possible for inland navigation and river cruise ships. We now want to expand this further for a wide range of vessels at the various terminals,’ the Port of Amsterdam said.
In December 2020, Wilson’s 3,698 DWT Wilson Leith participated in a shore power trial in the neighbouring Port of Rotterdam. Commenting at the time, Wilson, which makes approximately 1,100 calls a year to Rotterdam, confirmed that more than 80 of the company’s ships are ready to use shore power in port.
Source:batteryindustry
