HYBRID VESSELS LIKELY TO LEAD RECOVERY

摘要

Few offshore vessels are being ordered currently, and few are likely to be ordered in the short to medium term, given the nature of the downturn in the industry. However, when the market recovers and vessels do begin being ordered in significant numbers again, far-sighted owners are likely to be looking for designs that distinguish them from their competitors, offer their clients more than other vessels and are more cost-effective, environmentally friendly and safer to operate. All of the above-mentioned features point heavily in the direction of offshore support vessels (OSVs) with hybrid power and propulsion - with batteries at their heart. Plenty of offshore vessel owners already operate diesel-electric vessels, growing numbers on both sides of the Atlantic have adopted vessels with dual-fuel engines that can burn environmentally friendly liquefied natural gas (LNG) and some have already ordered vessels with a combination of these features. The 'next wave' will be hybrid ships with batteries.