After a successful maiden staffed voyage in November last year, the world’s first fully electric and autonomous container ship, YARA Birkeland, is set to traverse Norway’s southern coast.
The 120 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) open-top container ship built by Yara and KONGSBERG will operate between three ports in southern Norway and save roughly 40,000 diesel-powered truck trips per year.
Svein Tore Holsether, President and CEO of Yara said: “We have been looking forward to this day for a long time. Yara Birkeland will transport mineral fertilizer between Porsgrunn and Brevik and will contribute to significant emission cuts during transport.
This is an excellent example of green transition in practice, and we hope this ship will be the start of a new type of emission-free container ships. There are a lot of places in the world with congested roads that will benefit from a high-tech solution like this.”
In addition to automatically loading and discharging cargo, the self-driving vessel is equipped with an automatic mooring system that allows it to berth and unberth without the need for human intervention.
“Norway is a big ocean and maritime nation, and other nations look to Norway for green solutions at sea. Yara Birkeland is the result of the strong knowledge and experience we have in the Norwegian maritime cluster and industry.
The project demonstrates how we have developed a world-leading innovation that contributes to the green transition and provides great export opportunities for Norwegian technology and industry.” said Geir Håøy, Kongsberg Group CEO.
Emergency and exception handling, condition monitoring, operational monitoring, decision support, surveillance of the autonomous ship and its surroundings, and all other areas of safety will be handled by three centres ashore.