Kongsberg selects Leclanché as energy storage system provider

Maritime technology company Kongsberg Maritime has selected Leclanché as its battery partner and supplier of customized marine energy storage solutions. Through the partnership, Leclanché will deliver one of the largest single marine battery system orders to date, for nine vessels totaling 45MWh batteries. The systems will be built at Leclanché’s facility in Switzerland, with the cells manufactured at Leclanché’s Willstätt facility in Germany. The first project to be jointly executed will be Yara Birkeland, the world’s first autonomous and electric container vessel with zero emissions, ordered by YARA, a fertilizer company and provider of environmental solutions. Reportedly replacing 40,000 truck journeys a year, Yara Birkeland aims to eliminate NOx and CO2 emissions and improve road safety, while also reducing noise and dust emissions currently caused by trucks in a densely populated urban area. The second project relates to vessels known as Grimaldi Green 5th Generation (GG5G). Grimaldi is one of the world’s largest operators of roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) and roll-on/roll-off passenger (ro-pax) vessels. The hybrid propulsion system delivered by Kongsberg includes supply and integration of shaft generators, frequency drives and energy management systems together with Leclanché battery systems. The GG5Gs will be the first in a new series of hybrid ro-ro vessels using fossil fuel during navigation, with batteries providing a peak-shaving function and electricity in port. According to a statement released by Leclanché, the partnership underscores the company’s strategy of being a vertically integrated system supplier to growth markets such as merchant marine and fleet transportation, moving beyond being a ‘pure play’ cell producer. Frode Kaland, executive vice president, supply chain, Kongsberg Maritime, said, “Leclanché’s ability to cover the complete value chain from design and production of lithium cells in Europe, to full battery systems certified for marine applications, together with our proprietary hybrid power technology, positions us as a single, unified supplier of electrification solutions that will deliver lower operational expenditure and enable environmental sustainability for all vessel types.”