Page 44: of Marine Technology Magazine (June 2019)

Above: full ship power on one engine, if f

Optimal outputs: a wind- needed.

turbine permanent mag-

Like an offshore wind-turbine in- net generator at The stallation vessel or cable layer, the

Switch in Deyang.

Giant needed redundancy. Tighter r energy management rules demand- ed ef? ciency, hence the three DC

Left: hubs and EBLs installed for bat-

Dual-use: A marine perma- tery loops. An auxiliary genera- nent magnet motor from tor added the variable speed. “It’s

The Switch. a gamechanger for running on a single engine (or DP 3 only),” said Cato Espero, Wärtsilä head of sales for Scandinavia. He adds that the North Sea Giant will cut t two million liters per year of fuel costs for its owners, about as much as 2,000 cars per year. Its six en- full cost. It’s a national drive, and “Shipowners say the ships gines can run as three, and its three battery packs are similar to should be easy to convert to new fuel,” said Parpala.

the Fred Olsen wind-carrier jack-up vessel. “An electrical bus switch for their vessel cut the cost of operations and of fuel China offering by 50 percent and allows its three different hybrid systems to

While all of The Switch’s current customers for vessel-drive work as one.” conversions are Norwegians, customers buying the company’s

In Norway, of course, government does offer funds for con- converters for wind turbines are largely Chinese and Danish. versions to greener power, and so owners are not paying the Their Chinese plants produce components for Chinese land-

June 2019 44

MTR

MTR #5 (34-49).indd 44 5/24/2019 11:01:06 AM