JAPAN – WORLDWIDE – Maritime technology company, Eco Marine Power (EMP) has announced that it has received acceptance from classification society ClassNK for the installation of its Aquarius Marine Solar Power solution on classed vessels, which EMP says will bring to the shipping market a renewable energy solution that can be integrated with other systems on-board freight and passenger ships. Greg Atkinson, Chief Technology Officer of EMP explained, saying:
“The acceptance by ClassNK of our standard marine solar power system is a major step forward towards bringing type-approved renewable energy solutions to the shipping, marine and offshore industries. It is also becoming clear that solar power has an important role to play on ships in terms of reducing fuel consumption and harmful emissions.”
Acceptance by ClassNK means Japan’s Eco Marine Power will release two marine solar power packages: Aquarius Marine Solar Power and Aquarius MAS + Solar, with the latter including additional hardware and software that allows the system to perform functions such as fuel oil consumption monitoring. These marine solar power systems include marine-grade solar power panels, a marine computer system with LCD monitor, battery charge controllers, energy storage, data communication devices and interface/control units.
The energy collected by the marine solar panel array or string of photovoltaic (PV) panels can be used to power a DC load, provide back-up or emergency power or be connected to an AC load via an inverter, so any ship or vessel can tap into the clean and renewable energy provided by the sun.
Each marine solar power solution from EMP incorporates the Aquarius MAS (Management and Automation System). This compact marine computer monitors the performance of the solar power array(s) and battery pack, plus it logs data, switches equipment on and off, calculates vessel emissions, records fuel consumption and displays system alarms. In addition the Aquarius MAS can monitor system performance and alarms from a wide variety of other equipment and sensors installed within vessels.
The Aquarius MAS hardware & software platform is based upon the KEI 3240 Data Logger which is already in use on hundreds of vessels including tug boats, training ships, tankers and bulk ore carriers. Energy storage options for EMP’s marine solar power solutions are provided by the Furukawa Battery Company of Japan and include FC38-12 Valve Regulated Lead Acid (VRLA) batteries or FCP-500/FCP-1000 series batteries.
Photo: Installing an EMP Marine Solar system.
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