If you’ve been following the development of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power in the last year, you’ll know that China is the number one country on this development. They are working really hard to make as much as possible of their energy renewable, and today I want to share the news that they have actually launched a zero-emission cargo ship! This is not a plan that will happen in the future; the ship has already been put in the water!
Why does it matter that the cargo ship has zero emission?
Most of us don’t really see how many cargo ships there are around, but the International Maritime Organization estimated that 796,000,000 CO2 was released by the shipping industry in 2012, and they think they numbers will keep on rising unless something is done. This number can be translated to be roughly 2.2 % of all the human-made emission in the entire world, so this industry obviously has a big impact on the climate change! The source is found on page 4 of Third IMO GHG Study 2014. This is the entire report by the International Maritime Organization, and might be an interesting read for those who are interested in this topic. It talks about some of the problems and possible solutions the shipping industry currently faces, and the emissions is a big part of it.
It’s obvious to see that we should work on improving the shipping industry when we look at these numbers, and cargo vessels that run on pure electricity compared to fossil fuels is a very good start.
The first electric cargo ship in the world!
China Daily just announced that the fully electric cargo ship has been deployed in Guangzhou, China. The ship is 2,000 metric tons heavy, and can run for 80 kilometers before it needs to be recharged. It takes about 2 hours to fully charge the battery, but a regular stop to drop off supplies will take about the same time, so it will usually be able to fully charge while it’s waiting for other stuff anyway.
Like the electric cars, the shipping cargo runs on electricity that is stored in a lithium battery. It can store up to 2,400 kilowatt hours, roughly the same as 40 new electric cars.
An image of the new electric cargo ship just before it has been launched into the river.
Is this the future?
We can hope that fully electric cargo chips are the future, but there are still big hurdles to overcome before this can be a common thing. Firstly being able to travel for 80 kilometers before having to recharge is not a lot. This only makes them suitable for short distance shipping, but it is certainly a good option when you need to ship your stuff less than 80 kilometers.
Another problem is that electric vehicles not necessarily means that they release zero-emission. This really depends on the origin of the electricity. Many places still uses electricity from burning fossil fuels, and by doing this you almost gets as much emission as you do from burning the same fossil fuels directly in the ship. It’s a bit better, but for it to be zero-emission you will need to provide the ship with renewable energy in the first place.
Thanks for reading
If you want to learn more about this new ship, then follow the links above. Thanks for reading the post, and feel free to leave a comment below if you got anything you want to share with the rest of us!