Video: Electric tanker by mid-2021

Four Japanese firms have teamed up to develop what could be the world’s first electric tanker, intending to launch it by mid-2021.

Mitsubishi Corporation, Asahi Tanker, Exeno Yamamizu Corporation, and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines have joined forces to provide new infrastructure services in the marine shipping industry for electrically powered vessels under their newly established company e5 Lab.

Named for five kinds of e-value (electrification, environment, evolution, efficiency and economics), e5 Lab aims to address challenges facing Japan’s shipping industry by consolidating the technology, know-how and networks of its four major shareholders.

The tanker will be a coastal vessel powered by large-capacity batteries and will operate in Tokyo Bay,

The company will also develop other kinds of coastal and ocean-going electrically powered vessels to achieve as soon as possible the 50% greenhouse gas reduction target set by International Maritime Organisation (IMO) which wants annual emissions to drop to half of their 2008 levels by 2050.

From 2020, most ships will have to use fuel containing less sulphur as well.

The e5 Lab will also look at autonomous shipping technologies, offer an electric-vessel platform to all stakeholders in the marine shipping industry, improving connectivity and sensor use to aid safety, operations and communication; use rechargeable batteries for emergency back-up, and help to develop a sustainable growth model and standards within the industry.

Electric ships are being developed elsewhere too, with Kongsberg Gruppen in Norway providing an electric autonomous cargo vessel, Rolls-Royce Holdings supplying battery-powered ship engines, and two New Zealand companies (Wellington ferry company East by West and boat builder McMullen & Wing) planning electric ferries by about 2021.