Japanese companies jointly announced
Friday the official completion of a carrier ship with "Hybrid Power
Supply System," built at a shipyard in the western Japanese harbor
city of Kobe, with the aim to reduce CO2 emissions while berthed,
local press reported.
The "Emerald Ace", a 60,200-ton car carrier that combines solar
panels with diesel generators, was built at Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries Ltd.'s Kobe Shipyard and was delivered to Mitsui O.S.K.
Lines on Friday afternoon.
The 200-meter vessel, which can carry 6,400 passenger cars, was
co-developed by the Osaka-based consumer electronics maker Panasonic
Corp. which supplied the ship with a total of 768 panels of its
double-sided photovoltaic module on the top deck and 2.2 MWh of
lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. The solar power panels have an
output capacity of 160 kilowatts, enough to power 50 average
households.
Panasonic said that the electric power generated in the solar
panels and stored in the batteries, will be mainly used while the
ship is in harbor, allowing the diesel generators to be turned off.
The firm also said that the lithium-ion batteries installed at the
bottom of the ship will be used as ballast without affecting the
storage capacity.
The report added that the ship was the last commercial vessel to
be built at the Kobe shipyard as a result of reorganization of the
shipbuilder's business strategy.
