If anyone wanted hard-metal proof that battery array vessels are beginning to be taken seriously, it’s to be found in the 150m long, 27m wide ‘Edda Freya’, writes Stevie Knight.
This SALT OCV304 is a whole step up in scale from Ostenso Rederi’s initial foray into hybrid engineering, heralded by the 2013 launch of the Edda Ferd. However, there are some surprises: at 1,050VDC with a capacity of 546kWh, the battery system is actually rather smaller than you’d think for a vessel this size.
Despite this, Sean Puchalski of Corvus Energy is quietly confident of the scale, given a worst-case engine failure “it’s still enough to provide for the propulsion system, the pumps, all the necessary equipment until the auxiliaries start up”. Certainly it would be a lot more of a concern if the groundwork hadn’t already been laid by the first vessel.