Wärtsilä and Norled celebrate happened in the fields of independent navigation and the ships to hydrogen



Last week in Norway the Finnish group Wärtsilä Corporation has carried to term with success the experimentation of an entire travel in independent navigation, included the ports of call in three ports, realized with a ferry of the company of Norwegian navigation Norled. Navigation of the Folgefonn ferry, that it is along 85 meters, is guided through the positioning of useful points of georeferenziazione and waypoint to direzionare the ship and with the employment of the system of realized dynamic positioning from Wärtsilä that the speed of the ship controls, its position on a predefined route and the direction of advance of the ferry.

The ferry, without some human participation, has left the pier, it has maneuvered in order to exit from the port and has proceeded with navigation towards the next port of call where it has maneuvered in order to carry out the income in port and therefore in order to berth to the terminal. Wärtsilä has evidenced that realized would have to be the first experimentation in absolute of an independent navigation in modality dock-to-dock and without some realized human participation with a ship of these dimensions.

The success of this test - it has emphasized Joonas Makkonen, vice president Voyage Solutions di Wärtsilä - ahead represents an enormous step in the validity of the solutions of independent navigation and an important development in the within of our Marine Smart program".

While the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) has announced that the Norled is the winner of a contest, to which the companies Fjord1 and Boreal have participated also, in order to carry out the marine service that connect Hjelmeland, Skipavik and Nesvik, route that will have to be covered with a ferry with hybrid propulsion fed with hydrogen and electric power, ship that will be the first to the world of this type.

In particular the contract, that it will have lasted from on April 15, 2021 on February 28, 2030, previews the planning, the construction and the exercise of a ferry in which at least 50% of the energy need it is generated with it I use of the hydrogen, while the residual energy will have to come from electricity supplied to the ferry in port through a system of cold ironing that it connects the ship to the net terrestrial electrical worker.