Shipping is a dirty business. EVs—electric vessels—could change that

Charging a car, or electric vehicle, typically takes about 350 kilowatts. Charging an entire ocean freighter, or electric vessel, could take 20 megawatts, roughly 57 times more power. 

It’s a striking difference in power and generating capacity, and illuminates the challenges and opportunities behind greening the freighters and container ships crisscrossing the earth’s oceans.

Across the Atlantic, maritime green energy provider NatPower Marine is developing the infrastructure to establish the world’s first operational electrified shipping corridor between Ireland and England. This includes electric boats and chargers and the renewable energy projects—which include wind, solar, and batteries—to power the vessels. Stefano Sommadossi, the firm’s CEO, said these kinds of advancements will help close a considerable gap in a clean-energy-powered supply chain. A handful of electric ships will start traversing this route in 2026. 

3% of global emissions

“This is important,” Sommadossi said. “Imagine getting your Tesla car delivered, and then realizing it was shipped to you over the ocean using diesel fuel. I’m bringing you an energy-efficient vehicle with the worst kind of energy use.”

NatPower Marine’s $132 million investment with developer Peel Group will outfit eight ports—including Lancashire and Dublin—to create a network of electric vessels, as well as portside chargers, and electric cars and vans to transport goods once they’re unloaded. NatPower aims to create 120 clean ports by 2030, and plans to spend $4 billion in total to establish a global network. 

There has been concerted effort by advocates of cleaner global shipping to find more ways to cut the carbon emissions of this energy-hungry sector. Shipping is a vital link in the international economy, but it also contributes approximately 3% of global emissions, an amount roughly equivalent to the emissions of Germany. Unless they’re being made and used locally, or shipped via electric trucks, even the greenest items rack up considerable emissions on the journey overseas. 

The push to clean up ocean shipping has taken multiple pathways to success: electrifying very short routes, investing in cleaner fuels for cross-ocean trade, and electrifying port operations. The latter can make a big difference for those living near active ports, where port-related emissions can make up roughly a third of the city’s carbon footprint. 

Cleaning up the industry offers substantial benefits, said Sommadossi, including cutting port emissions, improving the health of those living nearby, and, as green shipping networks grow and encompass a larger portion of everyday commerce, offering companies seeking to reduce their carbon footprint a chance at having a truly zero-emission supply chain. 

Crossing the oceans on clean power

Electrification, as of yet, isn’t quite feasible for journeys across the Atlantic or Pacific; too much battery weight, not enough places to stop and charge. Many proposals look at shorter routes with the ability to charge or swap batteries more often. But the power needed to do so would be immense: Sommadossi estimates that electrifying the entire shipping industry would use as much power every year as the U.S. currently consumes.

For these journeys, new technology will need to be advanced and deployed, said Jesse Fahnestock, who leads decarbonization work at the Global Maritime Forum. The current vision involves creating sustainably produced liquid fuels, such as ammonia or methanol, and building out new infrastructure at ports, including fuel generation and storage.

No current corridors exist, but there are a number of pilot and demonstration projects in the works, with the Global Maritime Forum helping to coordinate developments in order to establish international standards for power ships. The forum already counts 62 separate projects across the globe trying to determine greener shipping systems, with 15 electric corridors and the rest utilizing different variations of cleaner fuel.

For many companies, the appeal of cutting out their ocean freight emissions is leverage that’s currently being used to fund the development of alternative fuels for longer ocean trips. The Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA), a global collective, gathers companies, including Amazon and Patagonia, to create what it calls tenders—requests for providing significantly reduced emission transit for their goods. Shipping companies bid on the routes and the winner gets new business; it’s a way of guaranteeing big shippers get compensated for their investments in cleaner fuels and ships. 

Biofuels on the high seas

“The shipping industry is a complex and often overlooked, hard-to-abate sector that is only now starting to deploy zero and near-zero emission solutions,” said Ingrid Irigoyen, CEO of ZEMBA, which aims to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels in the shipping industry. “This industry also faces the famous chicken and egg problem, referring to the idea that many cargo owners—the customers of the shipping industry—are hesitant to invest in newer, more expensive, more sustainable service offerings until low emission fuels and technologies reach scale and therefore significant cost reduction.”

ZEMBA remains fuel-agnostic, just as long as the fuel and technology (be it green methanol, ammonia, or methane) can attain a 90% greenhouse gas reduction rate. 

Later this year, ZEMBA’s first tender will begin operating: Shipping line Hapag-Lloyd will service 20 freight buyers, including Meta, New Balance, Nike, and REI Co-op, shipping goods between Singapore and the port city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands on ships powered with waste-based biomethane, with an 80% reduction in carbon emissions. Irigoyen said there were challenges finding enough alternative fuel and figuring out the correct carbon accounting, but the launch is on track, and expects to abate 82,000 metric tons of CO2 over the next two years. ZEMBA is set to launch a second tender in 2027 that would focus more on hydrogen-based fuels. 

Irigoyen’s vision is a shipping sector where any company has the ability to decarbonize all its shipping activities if it so chooses, all at a competitive rate. The companies in the alliance represent the first movers, and their investment will hopefully kick-start a market for scalable sustainability solutions, she said, adding, “I find that kind of leadership and long-term thinking quite moving and inspiring.”

View the full article