GOAL 12: RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION
Enabling cleaner and greener ships
Responsible Production and Consumption
Maritime transport emits around 940 million tonnes of CO2 annually and is responsible for about 2.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There is no doubt that these must be eliminated or at the very least drastically reduced if we are to achieve our climate goals. The largest single factor of the maritime world’s contribution to climate change is fuel consumption. Burning heavy oil on ships produces massive amounts of CO2 as well as releasing significant quantities of harmful NOX and SOX into the atmosphere.
In addition to developing new ways to power ships, such as batteries charged by clean electricity and LNG/hybrid solutions, at KONGSBERG we also enable better fuel efficiency through the use of our operational technologies. Even before state-of-the-art ships with clean power and propulsion become mainstream, our solutions are giving ship owners and operators the ability to become more responsible in their energy consumption and resulting GHG emissions.
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DIGITALISATION
Fuel efficiency starts with measurement as we must know the status of a system to improve on it. Digital systems are becoming integral to this process. The data captured on board by a multitude of sensors can be managed and acted upon more effectively when it can be transferred, securely stored, analysed and presented digitally. This is why we built the cutting-edge Kognifai digital ecosystem. It acts as a single point of access and control for any kind of data. It allows faster, deeper insight and through this, more effective decision support that contributes to reduced fuel consumption.
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OPERATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
Contemporary standards driven by environmental regulations have changed the face of shipping, but considering that an average vessel’s lifespan is 25-30 years, it will take decades before there are more ‘modern’ efficient ships than there are older, less environmentally friendly ships at sea. KONGSBERG operational technology already helps 30,000 ships to reduce their GHG emissions even without added digitalisation or deep integration. Going forward, we have made it easy to retrofit our systems, so that ships still living out their useful life can enjoy the economic benefits of using less fuel while reducing the impact they have on our planet.
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SHIP DESIGN
Technology enables the optimisation of vessel operations for reduced fuel consumption, but a ship must be designed with efficiency at its core to truly realise the benefits. KONGSBERG ship designs help our customers to meet strict environmental targets through efficient hydrodynamics and extreme levels of seamless integration. From the concept and design phase, through equipment selection, procurement, systems engineering and integration, and production engineering, responsible energy consumption is inherent in any KONGSBERG designed ship.
In May 2019, KONGSBERG formed a partnership with DOF, SINTEF Ocean and NORCE, with the aim to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for complex offshore operations, while streamlining fleet-wide maintenance. Enabled through sponsorship and support from Innovation Norway, the new partnership between four of Norway’s most established and advanced maritime organisations will develop a sophisticated new Decision Support System (DSS) to improve the efficiency of offshore vessel operations.
