She looks like a normal container ship. Yara Birkeland is, however, considered a shipping revolution.
If everything goes as planned, the electric ship will transport autonomously goods, without emitting pollutants into the atmosphere.
The tests with the new container ship started on May Day and will last for two years.
In southern Norway, from the port of Brevik to the shipyard’s facilities, the Yara Birkeland will transport fertilizers, initially covering a distance of 13 km – 8 miles.
In the first phase the original ship will be manually inspected by Captain Thomas Fevang.
Specifically, he points out the following: “The ship is equipped with cameras, inside and outside, as well as a night-vision camera. Thanks to the radar, it is able to detect different objects in the water, then film them and finally decide how to react to avoid collisions”.
Thomas Fevang estimates, however, that it will still take time for the captain’s job to become…an office job.
In the final phase of the test, the loading and unloading of the 120 containers carried by the ship will be fully automated.
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The Yara Birkeland electric motor with a total of 20 giant batteries is also considered a pioneering piece of equipment.
Norway has many firsts in electromobility in sea navigation.
Let us not forget that the largest electric ferry carrier operates daily voyages in that country.
Passengers say they are satisfied: “The electric drive on the ships is good for the environment, since the ferries make many trips every day”.
It is estimated that the Yara Birkeland container carrier will save about 40,000 truck transports each year, says Captain Thomas Fevang, while easing, however, the expectations for a speedy introduction of e-mobility in sea navigation.
“On shorter distances, electric mobility is becoming more and more important. It will take years, however, for batteries to suffice for a trip from Europe to America. On local routes, however, we will encounter more and more often electric ships”, Mr. Fevag underlines.
