ExpectedOutcome:
Project outputs and results are expected to contribute concretely to the following expected outcomes as marked (“*”) whilst supporting the overall medium and longer term objectives:
- Contributions to two full scale vessel demonstrators, hybrid and fully electric, by 2027 covering a sailing distance of at least 300 nm in the case of a fully electric vessel.
- *Development and validation of electrical architectures for large battery systems on-board.
- *Proof of the safe integration of battery systems into the ship’s electrical grid for a relevant number of ship types (e.g. IWT, short sea vessels, cruise ships, ferries) and operational scenarios.
- *Verification of the architecture and the power management system for two cases: hybrid and fully electric.
- *Documentation of skills requirements for the crew.
- *In the short term, facilitate full battery electric transit for reduced noise and zero emissions on shorter routes (up to 100 nm) and during approach and harbour stay.
Scope:
Electrification and electrical energy storage is one of the major drivers for climate neutrality in the waterborne sector. 100% electrical power can potentially be used on any kind of vessel, with an initial focus on ferries and short sea shipping where re-charging can be frequent, but also extending within hybrid applications to larger vessels on longer routes as well as to high power vessels and high-end complex ships with a high number and a wide variety of electrical consumers.
Large battery based electrical energy storage systems offer the highest energy conversion efficiencies. Within fully electric ships, notably ferries, batteries are the most energy efficient method to achieve climate neutrality. Within ICE hybrid vessels batteries increase total efficiency, cutting engine peak power demands, providing a “spinning reserve” and enabling the possibility of zero emission port entries and coastal passages utilising only battery power.
The latest industrial outcomes in large marine batteries are already addressing safe, long-life and cost-effective solutions. On the other hand, at ship level, the development of systems which ensure the full integration of batteries in the ship’s highly complex electrical network is crucial to ensure the optimal use of the electrical energy stored, alone or in combination with other zero-emission ship power sources like, for instance, fuel cells.
Projects will develop solutions for the on-board integration (including the optimisation of the electrical distribution grid) and control of batteries which will maximise the operational flexibility of different ships under electric-driven zero-emission operations, focussing on an optimal operation and the longest lifetime and lowest weight of the electrical systems and its key components. While ensuring the ship's energy balance and efficiency, solutions need to address one of these two cases:
- The hybrid arrangement for zero local pollution (long and complete discharge cycles), or
- The full electric arrangement, plug-in charging (charging strategy and battery size adapted to route).
Strategies for safe energy management systems with sufficient safety margins need to be addressed.
Projects will also investigate (e.g. through performance modelling) different optimisation strategies for the large capacity batteries on board and will need to prove the applicability to several ship types and operational profiles. It will need to establish connections with the project(s) awarded under the Horizon 2020 call LC-BAT-11-2020 which is focused on the development of cost-efficient batteries, including the certification methodology.
Consideration should be given to technology transfer from potentially related sectors, such as the energy management from solar panel systems.
Long term skills’ development needs and strategies with the aim to provide operational transferability of the developed solutions are integral to the topic and should also be investigated.
This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on ‘Zero Emission Waterborne Transport’ (ZEWT).
Specific Topic Conditions:
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
Cross-cutting Priorities:
Artificial IntelligenceOcean sustainability and blue economyDigital AgendaCo-programmed European Partnerships
