Rolls-Royce is launching a lithium-ion based energy storage system for ships.
The company said its ‘Save Energy’ liquid-cooled battery system— developed at its power electric division in Bergen, Norway— has a “modular design that enables the product to scale according to energy and power requirements”.
The system can be applied to areas including peak shaving, spinning reserve and battery powered vessels, Rolls-Royce said. “Combined with a liquefied natural gas or diesel-powered engine in a hybrid solution, it will increase efficiency and reduce emissions, and can be coupled with most types of propulsion units.”
In a hybrid set up, the system handles the peak load, while the main power generators will relate to the average load and not reduce the propulsion units thrusting capabilities, the company said.
The system has been developed with work part-funded by the Research Council of Norway’s Energix programme— in partnership with ship-owning companies.
Rolls-Royce has been supplying energy storage systems since 2010, although it said another company has provided the actual storage units to date.
Andreas Seth, Rolls-Royce commercial marine executive VP for electrical, automation and control said: “From 2010 we have delivered battery systems representing about 15 megawatt-hours in total. However now the potential deployment of our patent pending Save Energy in 2019 alone is 10-18 MWh.”
