More than 50,000 kWh: China puts fully-electric container ship into service
China revolutionizes container shipping with Green Water 01, the world's largest fully electric container ship, now in service.
The container ship Blue Water 01 looks unspectacular on the outside, but has a fully electric drive.
(Bild: COSCO)
China Ocean Shipping Group Company (COSCO), a state-owned multinational conglomerate headquartered in Shanghai and the largest liner shipping company in China, has put the electric container ship COSCO Shipping Green Water 01 into service. COSCO made the announcement in a WeChat post. The container ship is powered exclusively by electricity and can transport a payload of 10,000 tons. This makes it the world's largest fully-electric container ship.
The container ship has an overall length of 119.8 meters, a width of 26.3 meters and a depth of 9 meters. The design draught is 5.5 m. COSCO states that the ship can carry around 10,000 tons of payload, which is accommodated in up to 700 standard containers.
Customizable batteries
The ship is powered entirely by electric motors. Two 900 kW motors are used. The battery capacity provides more than 50,000 kWh, which will come from a large battery. The battery capacity can be supplemented by individual additional modules, which are housed in container-sized battery boxes. They will each supply 1600 kWh per unit. This allows the range of the ship to be adapted to the planned length of the transport journey, writes COSCO. The ship can accommodate up to 24 battery boxes. The batteries can therefore deliver up to 88,000 kWh.
COSCO does not provide any information on the range of the ship, but does state the fuel savings that can be achieved with the container ship compared to conventionally powered ships. According to this, around 3.9 tons of fuel can be saved per 100 nautical miles, a reduction in CO₂ emissions of 12.4 tons.
The Green Water 01 was successfully launched at the end of July 2023. The ship has now started its weekly service. The container ship transports containers with goods by water between Shanghai and Nanjing in inland China. The route is more than 300 km long and runs close to the coast across the sea and the Yangzijiang River to its destination. There are plans to connect other Chinese seaports with the electric container ship in the future.
With the use of electric drives, China is now also seeking to bring about an energy revolution in the container shipping sector and make it more sustainable.
(olb)