Exhaust-Free Travel Experience in Norway
Range and energy availability count among the most important variables in electric mobility. Anyone who has planned a route with an eVehicle, knows to look, not only for the most advantageous roads, but also for available charging stations. The situation in shipping is quite similar; however, with completely different dimensions involved in calculating the required performance. The “Future of the Fjords” shows how this future can look. The WAGO 750 I/O System is used for load management on the Norwegian excursion boat.
There are already numbers related to maritime eMobility that make one sit up and take notice: drive power of 900 kW, battery capacity of 1.8 Mwh, charging time of twenty minutes. This is what it takes for the ship of the year 2018 to strike out and show its 400 passengers the beauty of the Nærøyfjord – without polluting the UNESCO world heritage site with the residues linked to conventional internal combustion engines. The ship, which is architecturally striking as well, could be made suitable for daily use because an essential part of the development concerned the design of a suitable “socket”. The docking station can be compared to a floating power bank and has its own battery. This acts like a booster during charging, and is then recharged again after the boat sails off. The background for this structure is that the existing supply network on land could not independently provide the necessary output for fast charging the ship.
The project was implemented by Westcon, a Norwegian company. While the ship took shape in the shipyards, Westcon's Power & Automation division took care of all of the maritime technology. This is based on e-SEAMatic, an independent automation system, which can be used beyond its maritime roots on land, in process technology applications and in the energy sector.
