Speaking at a press briefing ahead of Nor-Shipping 2015 Svensen said the take-up of hybrid designs had happened much faster than they had anticipated three years ago and it was “really a direction for the future”. He noted that if you looked at the direction the automobile market had developed in recent years it was not surprising.
Svensen noted that hybrid vessels gave “tremendous opportunities to save fuel” and, “are ideally suited to ships with high variations in load”. Hybrid vessels deliver stable operations on the main engine resulting in fuel savings of 15% - 30%. Hybrid vessels also have less noise and vibration and provide full torque and power instantly unlike a conventional engine.
“Currently, there are already 33 hybrid vessels in operation or on order, and looking ahead it is possible this number will top 100 by 2020,” Svensen said.
However, hybrid ships are mainly suited to shortsea and coastal operations, and offshore vessels rather than deepsea oceangoing vessels.
Meanwhile LNG-fuelled vessels, which DNV GL had been bullish about the development of in its report three years ago, are taking off more slowly than expected. “We believe LNG is a future fuel but the uptake has been slower than expected,” he commented.
Whereas the classification society had previously predicted there would be 1,000 LNG powered vessels by 2020 it has cut this number to 500 – 600. Development has been slower than expected to due to the time it is taking to develop infrastructure for LNG bunkering and the cost.
Svensen added that regulations rather than pure economics were likely to be the driver of LNG as a marine fuel.
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