Sea Li-ion – electrifying the maritime sector

The objective of the EU-funded Sea Li-ion project was to evaluate and map out innovative ideas and sustainable solutions to boost electrification of the maritime sector, and at the same time make it more environmentally friendly and energy efficient. The participants of the project were Stena Rederi, Port of Kiel, DNV, Port of Gothenburg, Stena Recycling and BatteryLoop.

As part of the project, energy mappings of ports were done at Port of Gothenburg, Port of Kiel and Port of Karlshamn. In Gothenburg, a business case for electric ferries and energy storages was conducted and showed that it takes in general five percent of the total electricity power consumption in Gothenburg to charge one ferry. However, if an energy storage system would be used when charging electric ferries, it could reduce the power consumption by half.

“With the price model that the network owner has, we must reduce the power levels and equalize energy utilization. An energy storage solves the problem and reduces the power charge while we can stabilize the grid,” says Per Wimby, Project Leader at Stena Rederi.

The results also showed that, for now, there is sufficient power, but placing an energy storage in the port would free up power for other things. As the energy storage would only be used a few hours a day for the charging of the ferry, it could be used to support the grid or other services.

“Even though the capacity is available in the Port of Gothenburg today, with the ongoing electrification of society one could question what it will be like in five to ten years,” says Viktor Allgurén, Head of Innovation at Port of Gothenburg.