According to a 2019 International Maritime Organization report, maritime transport emits 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, contributing to 2.5% of global greenhouse gases emissions. If things continue as it is, this figure is expected to increase between 50% and 250% by 2050.
To prevent this, Energy Observer is working with partners to develop and test reliable, sustainable, emission-free, and economically accessible energy solutions.
Energy Observer is a laboratory on an award-winning catamaran designed to challenge the limits of zero-emission technologies such as hydrogen, solar, wind and hydraulic. It aims to demonstrate that the onboard technologies and energy mix are operable in extreme conditions and can be replicated on a larger scale ashore and at sea.
"Energy Observer is an experimental platform for tomorrow's energies. Its electric propulsion is powered by renewable energies: sun, wind, marine currents,” says Victorien Erussard, captain and founder of Energy Observer.
He continues: “But what makes it unique is its ability to store its energy in the form of hydrogen produced from seawater, a technology that allows it to sail in total autonomy. Meaning must be given to innovation, for it to respond to the challenges humanity faces today.”
Having left its homeport in Saint-Malo in 2017, Energy Observer has been sailing the seas for a round-the-world Odyssey scheduled until 2024. So far, it has covered over 48,000 nautical miles (twice around the globe), completed 69 stopovers, and visited over 30 countries.
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Energy Observer is currently making a stopover at ONE°15 Marina Sentosa Cove, Singapore, till March 20.
Accompanied by a pedagogical exhibition village, this stopover will be an opportunity to share the Energy Observer's missions in the energy and maritime transition.
Other activities taking place during the stopover include an online conference with Energy Observer’s scientists; a panel discussion in the presence of Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation, and the Economic Development Board (EDB); and the screening of the documentary Energy Observer, Messengers of the Earth at the Singapore Science Centre.
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A peek inside the Energy Observer exhibition village at ONE°15 Marina Sentosa Cove, Singapore. Photo: Nurdianah Md Nur
Supporting the Singapore-France maritime collaboration
Energy Observer’s stopover is in line with the maritime partnership between France and Singapore last year, which includes developing synergies in the areas of digitalising and decarbonising the maritime sector.
Singapore’s Climate Change Secretary (NCCS), EDB, and Energy Market Authority have identified hydrogen as a relevant solution to diversify low-carbon alternative fuel mix.
As such, they are looking at CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage) to allow the production of blue hydrogen from natural gas and enable the massive importation of green hydrogen -- both liquid and gaseous – to cover a range of needs.
During the stopover, Erussard will meet various players in Singapore’s maritime sector – including Sembcorp and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) – to learn about local innovations such as clean vessels.
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“Energy Observer’s expedition around the world as a voice for green innovations to improve our world is both ambitious and inspirational. This is the first time Singapore welcomes a hydrogen-powered and zero-emission vessel, and it speaks of the aspiration we have as a global hub port to welcome more of such low or zero carbon vessels,” says Quah Leh Hoon, chief executive, MPA.
The power of hydrogen
“Hydrogen is the best ally of clean fuel. It is inexhaustible, full of energy, offers fast refuelling, clean, quiet and light,” says Louis-Noel Vivies, Energy Observer’s managing director, at a media briefing earlier today.
To exemplify that, the 62kg of hydrogen stored onboard Energy Observer provides 1 MWh of electricity. This is equivalent to the average electricity consumption (including electric heating) of a four-person household for a month and 10 days for a home spanning around 140m2 at an altitude of 1,000m with a heat pump system.
How the Energy Observer vessel works. Photo: Nurdianah Md Nur
Vivies also shares that if hydrogen is deployed on a large scale, it can meet 18% of the final energy demand globally and reduce 6 Gt of carbon dioxide per year by 2050. The hydrogen market could also generate US$250 billion in sales and create 30 million jobs by that year.
Given the promising potential of hydrogen as a clean energy, Energy Observer has formed its own research and development firm, Energy Observer Developments (EODev).
EODev uses the years of navigational expertise and knowledge acquired by its engineers to design, assemble and distribute zero-emission energy systems on an industrial scale. Where the vessel is testing these technologies in extreme conditions, EODev is responsible for rolling them out on a large scale to make them accessible.
“The strategies and technologies to neutralise greenhouse gas emissions are now crystal clear and sufficiently mature. We need to accept this change, demonstrate as quickly as possible the coherence of major pilot projects, and massively direct our investments towards these low-carbon technologies to make them accessible to all,” says Erussard.
Main photo: Energy Observer
