Power News

Alternative fuels are not top of the list of naval requirements for gensets, but they are inching their way up.The naval world is largely exempt from the decarbonization pressure faced by commercial shipping, but it can’t ignore it entirely. As a famed naval strategist once said: “Fuel stands first in importance of the resources necessary to a fleet.”Navies must therefore consider their fuel supply options carefully given that commercial shipping is currently rewriting supply and demand dynamics.Indeed…

Moises DelToro at GE Vernova’s Power Conversion business, discusses how deploying a Ship’s Electric Grid is a flexible way to accommodate growing energy demands for naval and coast guard vessels.A new age of electrificationWe’re in a new naval era and it is reshaping views about fleet mixes and capabilities. Modern fleets need to be mission-configurable, highly capable for military advantage, adaptable for technology insertion, but still affordable. The growing demand for vessel power is increasingly an enabler for mission systems, not just for platform propulsion.

Power and propulsion systems provider Fairbanks Morse Defense (FMD) announced it has been awarded a five-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) requirements contract by the U.S. Navy that makes the Beloit, Wis.-based company the sole source for engineering and technical support of the main propulsion diesel engines on the Navy’s Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program.FMD said it will provide global maintenance and repair services and OEM parts to improve engine performance and increase operational availability.

A pair of Schottel RudderPropellers type SRP 710 have left the German production site in Wismar and are on their way to the Turkish shipyard Med Marine for installation in a new tug. The salvage tug, which has been ordered by Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) will be equipped with main and auxiliary propulsion systems from Schottel . By this, the vessel will achieve an expected bollard pull of more than 120 tons. The Robert Allan RAstar 4200 (MED-A42120) design vessel is considered…

RIX Industries offers a mobile hydrogen generation system, the M2H2-Series scalable family of Methanol-to-Hydrogen Power Systems, bringing green power to shipboard and marine environments. With the ability to generate hydrogen onboard and on demand, the RIX M2H2-Series also eliminates the heavy footprint of cryogenic liquid hydrogen storage. These highly efficient power systems provide marine shipbuilders and operators a readily available path away from environmentally damaging diesel-based propulsion systems.Available now…

Rolls-Royce's Power Systems division has ended the 2020 financial year with an underlying operating profit of $247.3 million despite suffering a 17% drop in underlying revenue to $3.8 billion. This corresponds to an underlying operating margin of 6.5% (2019: 11.5%). As a result, Power Systems, with its product and solutions brand mtu, remained in the black during the 2020 pandemic year.Power Systems is taking advantage of the crisis to prepare for a shift in its business model…

STX Engine set to build first Mk3 variants of MAN workhorseSTX Engine signed a contract with Daehan shipbuilding for 3 × MAN 6L23/30H Mk3 GenSets for 1+1 vessels, which marks the first sale of the engine’s Mk3 version. The engines are bound for an Aframax crude tanker ordered by Atlas Maritime, the Greek international shipping company, and will achieve Tier III emission levels with the aid of SCR. They are provisionally scheduled for delivery in August 2021.“This is an important order…

JERA, Japan's biggest electricity generator and the world's largest buyer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), is operating gas- power plants at lower rates as it runs down inventories amid rising heating demand as temperatures drop.The company joins other Japanese power generators reducing run rates on their gas plants as they compete with LNG buyers across northern Asia scrambling to secure supplies, sending prices higher.Tight fuel supplies are also highlighting vulnerabilities in Japan's electricity grid that make it harder to swap power supplies between areas a decade after the Fukushima nucle

Built by Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes, Wash., the first of the U.S. Navy's new fleet of six YT 808-class tugs was delivered in October after completing the last construction phase. Measuring 90 feet long and 38 feet 3 inches wide, the YT 808 vessel is powered by twin Cat 3512E marine engines, each rated at 1,810 horsepower. The engines drive two Schottel SRP 340 fixed-pitch z-drive thrusters providing a top speed of 12.5 knots and an expected bollard pull of 40 metric tons.The new series of Robert Allan Ltd.-designed tugs are the Navy's first vessels built to meet the U.S.

Two centuries after the first coal-powered steamships crossed the Atlantic Ocean, a Swedish company is designing a futuristic throwback: a huge, wind-driven cargo ship that could help end the fossil fuel era and limit climate change.Shipping accounted for 2.9% of man-made greenhouse gas in 2018, and the industry’s share of planet-heating emissions has been rising in recent years, according to the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization.One solution may be to turn the clock back to pre-industrial times and again hoist sails to carry cargo around the world.Sweden’s Wallenius Marine AB…

GE’s Power Conversion business has been awarded a $40 million contract to supply the power and propulsion systems for two National Security Multi-Mission Vessels (NSMV). This new class of purpose-built ships for the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (MARAD) will be used primarily to provide cadets with at-sea training on operational vessels.GE was selected as the single-source vendor (SSV) for the ships’ propulsion system, which includes the integration of the diesel engines…

Engines manufacturer Caterpillar announced Tuesday it has signed a global services agreement with the the world’s largest tug operator, Svitzer, covering more than 100 vessels powered by Cat Marine engines in 30-plus countries. A focused Caterpillar team working with the global Caterpillar dealer network will execute the terms of the contract, which is designed to increase vessel uptime, drive service efficiency and extend Svitzer’s overall service experience.With towage operations serving 34 terminals and 120 ports in the Americas…

Power solutions provider Fairbanks Morse announced Tuesday that it will supply the ship service diesel generator (SSDG) sets for the electric power generation system aboard the U.S. Navy’s newest America class amphibious assault warship LHA-9.Construction of the SSDGs will begin in 2021 and delivery to the shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries' Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss. will start in 2023, the manufacturer said.The Landing Helicopter Assault (LHA) ships, the largest of all amphibious warfare ships…

Technology group Wärtsilä said it has been contracted to upgrade four vessels owned by Kuwait Oil Tanker Company (KOTC), a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC), by retrofitting the Wärtsilä Fuel Efficiency Boost solution to the ships’ main engines. The modification will reduce fuel consumption, and correspondingly lessen the environmental impact by lowering greenhouse gas emission levels.Wärtsilä said its Fuel Efficiency Boost initiative has attracted considerable interest…