Ørsted and Maersk to Test Offshore Vessel Charger

Maersk Supply Service and Ørsted will jointly test a prototype buoy that will act as both a mooring point and a charging station for vessels.

The solution will be tested on one of Ørsted’s offshore wind farms in 2021.

The buoy can be used to charge the smaller battery- or hybrid-electrical vessels and to supply power to larger vessels, enabling them to turn off their engines when laying idle.

The prototype buoy has been developed by Maersk Supply Service, a part of A.P. Moller-Maersk, while Ørsted is responsible for the buoy’s integration with the electrical grid at the offshore wind farm.

The charging buoy will be tested in the second half of 2021, where it will supply overnight power to one of Ørsted’s service vessels.

“The charging buoy tackles a multitude of problems; lower emissions, offering a safe mooring point for vessels, better power efficiency and eliminating engine noise. This is also a solution that can be implemented on a global scale, and one that can be adapted as the maritime industry moves towards hybridisation and electrification,” said Jonas Munch Agerskov, Managing Director for Offshore Renewables at Maersk Supply Service.

Ørsted intends to make any intellectual property generated in designing the integration of the buoy into the offshore wind asset publicly available to maximise the uptake potential of this carbon reduction innovation across the offshore wind sector.

“Ørsted has set the ambitious target of having carbon neutral operations in 2025, which includes the operations of our offshore wind farms,” said Mark Porter, Senior Vice President and Head of Operations at Ørsted Offshore.

”Technical and commercial innovation is central to Ørsted’s ability to provide real, tangible solutions to achieve our operational ambitions – and we need our partners’ support. We are happy to team up with Maersk Supply Service to test this innovative charging buoy, which brings us a step closer to creating a world that runs entirely on green energy.”

For the demonstration phase of the project, Maersk Supply Service has received one of the largest EUDP grants in 2020 supporting with DKK 22 million (EUR 2.95 million) to the engineering and demonstration of the power buoy. The Danish Maritime Fund has provided initial support to conceptualise the project.