Battery for Electric Ship
LG Chem, the world's leading manufacturer of advanced lithium-ion batteries, has signed a contract with a global energy firm specializing in hybrid ships to supply its batteries, accelerating the market dominance.
According to industry sources on Apr. 18, the company signed the supply deal for maritime hybrid batteries with Canada-based energy firm Corvus Energy at the end of last month.
Corvus Energy, which installs and manages the hybrid marine energy storage systems (ESS), has provided a total of 30MW lithium ion battery energy storage for vessels up to now. An official from Corvus Energy said, “Until now, we have installed our ESS in 50 ships across the world and we are planning to unveil ships with LG Chem’s lithium-ion batteries by the end of this year.”
A hybrid vessel combines traditional diesel power with electric battery power. It generally consumes fossil fuels but uses an automatic positioning control, low-speed sailing system at ports and electric battery during the standby status in order to endure rough seas. As shipbuilding and shipping businesses are seeing the rapid increase in the fossil fuel costs due to increasingly stronger environment regulations, they are paying attention to hybrid ships as their alternatives. Corvus Energy attracted large investments from Statoil, the state-run oil and gas company in Norway, last year.
LG Chem was selected as the supplier of lithium-ion battery to a platform supply vessel “Viking Queen” with 650 kWh energy storage system of Eidesvik Offshore last year, advancing to the electric ship market. In fact, Viking Queen equipped with a battery of LG Chem has saved fuel costs through hybrid system application by 18% and reduced CO2 and NOx by 25%.