Greentech Lead Asia: Panasonic Corporation has
provided its green technology for a car carrier ship named EMERALD ACE. The
ship, which is designed to achieve zero emissions in harbor with a hybrid
electric power supply system on board, is now ready to go into service on
routes around the world.
The ship was built by joint R&D efforts of Panasonic,
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries,
(MHI). The ship was built at MHI’s Kobe shipyard.
This R&D was designated as part of the “Project
to Develop Technologies for the Reduction of CO2 Emissions from New Ships”
by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and is supported
as a cooperative research program to develop technology to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions in international shipping by Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK).
Panasonic has utilized its HIT solar modules (160 KW) and
lithium-ion batteries (approx. 2.2 MWh) to power the ship. The power generated
by the HIT solar modules and stored in the lithium-ion batteries is primarily
used while the ship is at anchor. This will reduce its total CO2 emissions by
supplementing the power generated by the ship’s diesel power generator.
The lithium-ion batteries are located at the bottom of
the ship, used as fixed ballast, so that they do not affect the carrying
capacity of the ship.
Panasonic continues to develop and provide systems that
combine solar cells and secondary batteries that leverage the company’s
expertise in energy creation and storage.