Construction Support Vessel Acta Centaurus goes hybrid
The Finnish technology group Wärtsilä will be converting the Acta Centaurus, a Construction Support Vessel for offshore wind farms with a hybrid drive. This should reduce CO2 emissions by up to 15 per cent.
The Dutch owner of the ship, Acta Marine, has made public that they commissioned the conversion in May 2019 and that the installation is now scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2019. The Wärtsilä solution includes the hybrid drive, batteries and an energy management system and the Finnish company will also install, test and commission the hybrid system. Wärtsilä will also upgrade the Acta Centaurus’ onboard systems for the hybrid drive.
“Hybrid propulsion is becoming an increasingly adopted trend for meeting the challenges faced by today’s maritime industry,” says Joel Knif, General Manager Sales Marine Projects at Wärtsilä.
The special feature of the Construction Support Vessel is that they have to maintain their position as precisely as possible during work, regardless of weather conditions, currents and waves. This “positioning load” leads to fluctuating power requirements. According to Wärtsilä, it can operate these more efficiently with the fast-reacting electric motors than with the more sluggish ship diesel. Wärtsilä did not provide any information on propulsion power, battery capacity or electrical range in their announcement.
Just last month, the first ship with a Wärtsilä hybrid drive went into operation. This vessel is an escort tug at the Swedish port of Luleå, which has been equipped with a drive specially developed for tugs.
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