Early this month the Emerald Ace, a new cargo of the Japanese company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, begun sailing the seas. The peculiarity of this ship is an hybrid system allowing for the storage of energy produced by 160 KW photovoltaic panels, located on the roof, in lithium-ion batteries.

Although the ship uses diesel engines for sailing, these are turned off once it moors in ports. The energy needed for the basic functions while the ship is at anchor is supplied by the batteries, whose capacity is about 2.2 MWh.

Thanks to this system, CO2 emissions are cut to zero, and the overall environmental impact in the port area is lowered.

The research on this technology is part of the "Project to Develop Technologies for the Reduction of CO2 Emissions from New Ships", promoted in Japan by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

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