what does it take for the things you love let's say your cell phone to go from its
point of origin to finally residing in your pocket it requires a boatload of
well ships while we all benefit from the current status of the global supply chain
it is a dirty and complicated mess but could all that change with the birth of a brand new
all-electric all-autonomous cargo ship one company norway's konsberg maritime is willing to test the
waters to find out could electric autonomous ships provide an avenue for not only reducing emissions
but also solving some of the biggest issues facing today's shipping industry
come sail away with us as we explore these questions and more today on two bit different
special thanks to hone health for sponsoring this video find how you can fight back against
father time with hone health the current status of global shipping can be summed up in two words
dirty and complicated maritime transport accounts for roughly 940 million metric tons of carbon
dioxide every year making up to about two and a half percent of global greenhouse gas emissions
and these numbers they're only expected to grow anywhere from 50 to 250 percent by 2050 without
major intervention according to the european commission but the impact goes well beyond co2 oil
spills water and air pollution not to mention the impact on marine life researchers have discovered
that the noise produced by marine vessels causes chronic stress and a slew of other health problems
for whales and other sea life a new fully electric fully autonomous ship out of norway
could kickstart a revolution in shipping and the global economy the ship the yara birkeland will
be the first fully electric fully autonomous ship first imagined in 2017 the vessel was created by
the tech firm kongsberg maritime and shipbuilder vard the ship has a deadweight capacity of 3200
metric tons and a cargo capacity of 120 teu that's the number of 20-foot containers it can carry this
is rather on the small side but it's a starting point nonetheless equipped with a 7 megawatt hour
battery with about one thousand times the capacity of an electric car the ship can reach service
speeds of six knots and max speeds of 13 knots or between 7 and 15 miles per hour which is about
average for a bulk carrier while the ship does not carry the title of the first fully autonomous ship
that goes to a ferry launched in finland back in 2018 it will be the first fully electric container
ship in the world and that's bound to make a pretty big splash the initial voyages will include
human crew to handle loading and unloading but the ship will handle moving discharging mooring
operations and all other functions autonomously still the ship will always be monitored remotely
by three separate data control centers to ensure safe travels and operation the ship will travel
12 nautical miles between three ports in southern norway an area that currently carries the majority
of the norwegian coastal administration's ship traffic the major headline is that this ship
produces zero carbon emissions on its own the only source of carbon will likely come from recharging
using norway's current infrastructure which is generated mostly by hydroelectric power and is
one of the cleanest grids in the world electric ships such as the yara will not only reduce the
impact of shipping vessels but it will also help move freight away from the roads and toward the
sea the ship's engineers estimate that just this one ship could replace 40 000 diesel-powered
truck journeys annually while shipping makes up between two and three percent of global emissions
medium to heavy-duty trucks contribute somewhere between eight and ten percent of global emissions
electric vessels would also essentially eliminate the threat of oil spills and other water pollution
and whales well research suggests that the quieter electric motors could help alleviate the issue of
noise-related whale stress significantly if just one electric ship could have this big an impact
imagine what a whole fleet could do but benefits don't stop there having a ship be not only fully
electric but also fully autonomous could open up a whole new world for maritime commerce before
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and all of you for making this show possible autonomous ships hold the potential to be
significantly safer than human operated vessels according to a report published by alliance a
munich-based insurance company between 75 and 96 percent of marine incidents and accidents
result from human error typically due to worker fatigue remotely controlled autonomous ships could
significantly reduce the risk of damage to vessels and cargo and most importantly eliminate the
risk of injury or death no crew could also mean overhauling the entire design of these vessels
to allow them to carry more cargo while also increasing their travel efficiency not having to
work accommodations and accompanying life support systems for a crew into the design but possibly
the biggest win of fully autonomous ships relates to the convoluted and frankly decaying arena of
the global supply chain today roughly 90 percent of the world's goods are transported by sea
over recent decades marine labor has seen a steady decline while demand has continually increased
the current worldwide population of seafarers currently serving on international trading vessels
is just over 1.6 million global demand however is currently right around 1.5 million and growing
experts expect the demand to begin outpacing worker availability in the near future
the global shipping supply chain is a very intricate sensitive beast where one small
hiccup could have catastrophic results remember this ship driver's bad day back in march of 2021
that blocked the suez canal and ended up costing roughly 400 million dollars an hour for a total
of six days and seven hours yeah you do the math the global shipping industry was already
working at near full capacity and then well we all know what happened the coveted pandemic of 2019.
2020 2021 was it one year was it 50 is it still happening when you're watching this video anyway
the pandemic served to exacerbate long-standing issues with the global supply chain
due in large part to the way it impacted the already tight labor market having fully
autonomous vessels that can handle every aspect of the industry without any human intervention
could be an absolute game changer you could have ships running at every given time all year round
unaffected by the labor market or even the global pandemic after all robots don't need
sick days well unless they're running windows and catch bars sorry so will norway's quieter
safer cleaner cheaper electric rebel ships inspire other companies to build their own emissions-free
ai armadas maybe but before we see more proliferation of these ships experts see a handful
of limitations that companies like kongsberg will need to address for one thing for these ships to
navigate successfully in large ports we'll likely need to see bigger improvements to their ai
rudy negenborn a maritime and transport technology professor at the delft university of technology
in the netherlands says that while he believes full autonomous ships are indeed the future
they'll need improved navigation systems at some point these ships will have to start interacting
with each other so they can exchange information and create paths that are not conflicting he says
he also added that without crews these ships will need flawless onboard self-diagnosing
systems with the capacity to not only detect but fix any problems that may arise there are also
concerns over international maritime regulations questions remain about whether these ships
could operate globally and who would carry legal liability in the event of an accident
and while these ships boast increased safety for humans they do still carry
the risk of piracy both in forms of high-tech hacking as well as good old-fashioned analog
pirating on a more practical level before these ships will be ready for their high seas adventures
they'll need to see major improvements in their overall capacity right now vessels such as the
yara birkeland can travel up to 80 kilometers on a single charge the largest fully electric
passenger vessel the ellen ferry operating in denmark can undergo a round trip of 22 nautical
miles it's not as if elon musk can build fast charging ports in the middle of the ocean although
who knows hybrid solutions have been investigated where a ship would use diesel generators on
board though this would increase carbon emissions significantly and kind of ruin the whole point of
an electric vessel won't someone please think about the poor whales without the need for
observation decks or other bits for us fleshy humans we could even cover these boats and solar
panels we might need some space for antennas and satellites for communication but otherwise
they could be blanketed bow to stern in solar this would mean that these ships could charge as
they travel theoretically if they traveled at slow enough speed they could travel purely on sunlight
just like with electric vehicles where companies like tesla have taken aerodynamics to an extreme
level of efficiency the same thing will happen with ships if ships become electric turbulence
in the water and hydrodynamics will become a major factor and if battery density isn't
quite there yet today might automated cargo ships finally be the use case that propels hydrogen into
the spotlight hydrogen is super gravimetrically energy dense and its packaging challenges and
lower volumetric energy density might be easier to design around in the larger scale of a shipping
vessel there's also the issue of deadweight tonnage capacity china's first fully electric
ship the young gang electric number one can travel 80 kilometers and carry 2 200 tons of cargo
most large cargo ships carry about 100 times that much cargo still market research forecasts
electric ships and autonomous ships seeing a compound annual growth rate of 14.9 percent and 10
respectively from 2021 to 2030. as yara birkeland prepares to make its inaugural voyage before the
end of 2021 we could be seeing these seminal steps into a whole new world of global shipping but
let us know what you think are you excited to see such technology revolutions take over the shipping
industry do you see any risk of having fully autonomous ships sailing in the seven seas let
us know in the comments below all right so that is a look at the future of autonomous electric
shipping vessels i think we've still got some ways to go especially with energy density or might this
finally be hydrogen's time to shine all right that is a look and i'm not that sorry so huge
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