First Commercial Hydrogen Shore Power Piloted at Norwegian Shipyard

The growing requirements for vessels to use shore power is especially challenging for smaller ports and shipyards which are not supported by the power grids with the available energy to handle especially large vessels which often require the power equivalent to 400 or 500 homes for their onboard operations. Meeting the challenge, a high-capacity hydrogen-based shore power solution is being demonstrated in Norway.

The groundbreaking system was designed by PSW Power & Automation and is currently being piloted at CCB’s shipyard in Ågotnes, Norway. The solution is reported to be the first of its kind in a commercial setting. It was demonstrated on September 19 powering the 4,800 dwt Havila Foresight, a platform supply vessel chartered by Equinor.

“It’s quite incredible. When the ships turned off their engines and switched to the shore power facilities, all you could see was some steam from the generator. No noise, no fumes,” said Tom Georg Indrevik, Mayor of Øygarden municipality near Bergen.

PSW’s solution is designed with flexibility, reliability, and safety in mind. It is able to meet the high capacity needs of vessels such as supply boats, cruise ships, drilling rigs, and fish farms. It works by using clean hydrogen to drive fuel cell generators, which in turn generate high-capacity electricity.

“This supply of electricity can then be integrated into existing grid-connected facilities, or work on a standalone basis for a complete off-grid offering. The system generates no pollutants, with its only other outputs being steam and heat,” says Eirik Sørensen, General Manager at PSW Power & Automation.

Participating in the demonstration are PSW Power & Automation and CCB as well as Westgass Hydrogen and H2 Production. The hydrogen for this pilot was sourced by Westgass, which is developing a country-wide network for the delivery of hydrogen. Future clean hydrogen supply to Ågotnes will come from H2 Production’s Energy Park in Øygarden, an industrial park near Bergen that will include clean hydrogen production, marine farming, CO2 industries, and the location for the world's first open reception, disposal, and storage of CO2 (CCS).