2024-08-22 06:30:01
The zero-emission ship Energy Observer returned to its home port in June after a seven-year odyssey. The company has launched two subsidiaries to accelerate the energy transition to hydrogen and plans to develop a new ship.
More than four years ago, in February 2020, Techniques de l’ingénieur announced the departure of the new Energy Observer crossing for a period of four years, after an initial three-year expedition. Now, after a seven-year odyssey around the world, the laboratory ship for the energy transition returned to Saint-Malo, its home port, on June 14. This emblematic ship will have traveled more than 68,000 nautical miles (126,000 km), or more than three times around the Earth.
A zero-emission autonomous boat
In seven years, the zero-emission ship has visited 50 countries and made 101 port calls, combining three renewable energy sources – solar, wind and tidal. The ship combines them with a dual storage system. In the short term, renewable production is stored using the Li-ion battery bank. To store electricity in the longer term for periods of poor weather conditions, the ship has 8 hydrogen tanks totalling 62 kg, filled using seawater electrolysis. They power a 70 kilowatt-hour (kWh) fuel cell supplied by Toyota.
Energy Observer now plans to develop a new boat to experiment with new technological building blocks. Construction of the vessel is expected to begin in the second half of 2025, with the aim of launching it in the summer of 2026.
EODev and EO Concept: two subsidiaries to accelerate
To accelerate the energy transition, Energy Observer has created two subsidiaries. First EODev in 2019, to manufacture electro-hydrogen groups. Then, EOConcept, which wants to develop the lowest carbon cargo ship in the world, operating with fuel cells and liquid hydrogen.
EODev designs, produces and markets two electro-hydrogen groups in France and internationally. The first, the GEH2, is a hydrogen electric generator, for the production of decarbonized electricity off-grid or in support of the grid. “They are therefore suited to the challenges of many sectors whose operations are ephemeral and whose activities are essentially nomadic: construction, events, telecoms, sustainable mobility and even audiovisual production.”the company says.
The second generator, the REXH2, converts hydrogen stored on board a ship into electricity. Designed around the same fuel cell as Energy Observer, it is intended to power the propulsion and on-board systems of any type of ship or offshore installation. As with Energy Observer, it can power the electric motor, but also the on-board auxiliaries, for all types of ships, whether professional or recreational.
Founded in 2023, EOConcept is a design office specializing in naval and port energy architectures. A pioneer in low-carbon maritime solutions, it is developing its Energy Observer 2 project, a small vessel powered by liquid hydrogen, intended to transport goods. Energy Observer thus promises to establish a new environmental standard in the industry that will prove that liquid hydrogen is a viable complementary solution to biofuels and e-fuels for an efficient energy transition in the maritime sector by 2035.”the company hopes. The initial investment is estimated at more than 100 million euros, covering the studies and construction of the ship.
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