HYBRID PROPULSION
THE ARRIVAL OF ALT FUELS WILL EXPAND THE USE OF BATTERIES “We expect to see ESS systems installed on every vessel powered by alternative fuels in future”, Corvus Energy’s Chief Commercial Officer Halvard Hauso tells The Motorship When Corvus Energy’s CCO Halvard Hauso spoke to The Motorship in early February, he was in an ebullient mood. . The long-awaited upswing in the market for maritime energy storage systems (ESS) is beginning pick up pace. The overall market for maritime ESS solutions is expected to more than double in 2022, and will double again before the end of 2024. As the market leader in supplying ESS systems, Corvus was also expecting to benefit from the growth in the market. “We had a great year for sales in 2021, and expect our sales to double in 2022. If all goes to plan, we expect our sales to double again by 2024,” Hauso said with pride. Looking back, Hauso noted that it was only six months since the 500th vessel or application sale, which had been achieved in just 12 years. “But if you imagine how many vessels there are in the world, 500 is just the beginning compared with the 60,000 or so vessels in the global fleet. There is a lot to do.” CORPORATE INVESTMENT The company is in the middle of an expansion to locate sales staff close to growth markets in order to meet the upcoming demand. There are around “15 to 20 countries” around the world where the green shift has arrived where Corvus needs to be. “We have just opened a joint venture in Japan with Sumitomo. We have opened in Singapore. We have opened in Florida, in addition to Seattle. And we have opened in Denmark, and we are just about to open in the Netherlands.” Technical sales support was available in the Americas, Europe, Singapore and Japan. A DIVERSIFIED PORTFOLIO The company’s product portfolio was also being expanded, Hauso noted. Corvus’ existing range of different ESS systems had been developed with different operational requirements in mind, once its experience in installing systems had illustrated the limitations of a “one size fits all approach”. “We have a portfolio of four main batteries, and one is operated for fast charge and discharge, one is for volume based that we can get a lot of energy into a small space, while the last two are optimised for weight. So, and by doing that we can optimise for any vessel, as it is today.” Hauso continued: “If you're going to put a 25 MWh [ESS] into a 70-metre offshore supply vessel, [it] needs to do something else as well. So that's why we developed the Blue Whale battery”. PROGRESS ON FUEL CELL SOLUTION Hauso was just as keen to talk about the company’s progress in its innovative hybrid PEM fuel cell and ESS solution. The development project was launched in 2021 and seeks to develop marinized hydrogen fuel cell systems (based on world leader Toyota’s existing PEM fuel cell, which was developed for automotive applications.) The Project is a
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significant undertaking: there is a team of engineers working on the project at Toyota, while Corvus has hired a team of 20 people to ensure that the system can be safely installed below deck on a vessel. “We are currently in the process to receive the approval in principle from DNV on the inherently gas safe fuel cell system. We aim to complete the class approval processes and have sailing pilots in 2023 and commercially available hydrogen fuel cell systems in 2024”
8 Halvard Hauso, CCO of Corvus Energy
MARKET DEVELOPMENTS Returning to the market, Hauso noted that while ordering behaviour was changing in several different vessel segments – “the adoption rate is picking up really fast” – some vessel segments were shifting towards battery-hybrid propulsion more rapidly than others. Hauso gave the example of the tug market, which had seen the rapid adoption of ESS systems and the first orders for fullelectric tugs. “We now have close to 10 full-electric tugs, I think – and I would expect to see the majority of harbour tugs ordered with either full-electric or hybrid systems in future.” “Because of the size of the tug market, and the number of orders placed annually [300-350], the shift towards hybridelectric is significant for us”. In addition to the expansion in the number of battery installations, the size of the battery was also increasing Hauso said, citing a recent order from Crowley for a tug with a 6MWh+ ESS. ZERO-EMISSION SOV AND CTVs Looking beyond the harbour tug market, Hauso identified the offshore wind market as a growth segment. “We expect demand for zero-emission SOVs and CTVs for the offshore
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