The electrification of the aquaculture industry is well under way, but there is still a long way to go before site boats and service vessels have fully transitioned to renewable energy. Battery operation is one of the solutions for increasing the share of renewable energy, but short range and a lack of charging infrastructure are obstacles to the transition towards fossil-free operation.
It is estimated that vessels account for around 80% of domestic greenhouse gas emissions from the aquaculture industry. Many battery-hybrid vessels already exist in the industry today, largely thanks to Enova having supported battery installations on 180 site boats, service vessels and passenger transport boats. Although this support scheme has now ended, essentially all new vessels are delivered as battery-hybrid vessels.
Moen Marin has so far sold more than 100 vessels with hybrid or electric propulsion, and all of its models now come as standard plug-in hybrids. In addition to the potential for emission cuts, battery operation provides better comfort on board, is believed to be beneficial for operations at the pen, and can give savings in machinery maintenance by letting the battery take load peaks. Unfortunately, these vessels today run almost exclusively on fossil fuels, and there is great potential for increased battery-electric operation. To achieve this, operational charging logistics, strategic placement and availability of charging capacity must be added to the already challenging logistics of running and operating service vessels and site boats.
The BatHav project will develop solutions that enable large-scale energy transition of service vessels and site boats in the aquaculture industry through battery operation. This covers vessels, typically up to 24 m in length, that are used for a wide range of operations connected to fish farms, and that today get almost all of their energy from burning diesel. The innovation covers new services linked to decision-support tools that will make an important contribution to the green transition and digitalisation of the maritime industry. It will also entail new and changed methods for the running and operation of vessels.
The solution includes: 1. New services for digital collection and analysis of energy consumption data, and a method for smart communication between charging stations and vessels. 2. New products and methods for operational decision support for service vessels and site boats with battery capacity. 3. New products and methods for decision support for establishing charging infrastructure, choosing battery sizes, and range-extension solutions.
The project is led by SINTEF Ocean, with the boat and technology supplier Moen Marin as project owner. It is crucial to the project that the service vessel operators Abyss, AQS and Frøy take part and contribute data, knowledge and vessels. SINTEF Energy and NTNU's Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management are also on the team. The main goal is to develop solutions for battery-electric operation of vessels in the aquaculture industry that actually lead to increased use of the batteries and thereby significant emission cuts. To achieve this, it is necessary to increase knowledge about the vessels' energy consumption, the opportunities that exist for charging and for reducing energy use, and how this can be implemented operationally. NTNU and SINTEF possess world-leading expertise in operations analysis for maritime logistics. When this is combined with industry expertise in aquaculture, the hope is that it can open up major opportunities for more efficient operations, as we have previously seen in other maritime sectors.