MV ''Yara Birkeland'' is an
autonomous 120
TEU container ship
A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...
carrying fertilizer between ports at
Herøya and
Brevik in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
.
The Yara Birkeland was designed to serve as a proof of concept for a fully autonomous ship capable of global travel and with multiple functions from industrial site operations to port operations.
Construction
''Yara Birkeland'' is long, with a beam of and a depth of . It has a draught of . Electric motors driving two
azimuth pods and two
tunnel thrusters.
Batteries rated at 6.7
MWh[ power the electric motors, giving it an optimal speed of and a maximum speed of . It has a capacity of 120 TEU.]NOK
Nok is a village in Jaba, Nigeria, Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The village is an archeological site.
Archaeology
The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, ...
250 million)[ it is designed by Marin Teknikk, with navigation equipment by Kongsberg Maritime.][ The Norwegian Government gave a grant of ]NOK
Nok is a village in Jaba, Nigeria, Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The village is an archeological site.
Archaeology
The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, ...
133.6 million towards the construction of the ship, about a third of the total cost, in September 2017.
Operation
''Yara Birkeland'' is named after its owners Yara International and its founder, Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland
Kristian Olaf Bernhard Birkeland (born 13 December 1867 – 15 June 1917) was a Norway, Norwegian space physics, space physicist, inventor, and professor of physics at the University of Oslo, Royal Fredriks University in Oslo. He is best remembe ...
.[ carrying chemicals and fertiliser, and is intended to reduce road truck traffic by 40,000 loads per year.]Prime Minister of Norway
The prime minister of Norway (, which directly translates to "minister of state") is the head of government and chief executive of Norway. The prime minister and Cabinet of Norway, Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior government departme ...
, Jonas Gahr Støre
Jonas Gahr Støre (; born 25 August 1960) is a Norwegian politician who has served as the prime minister of Norway since 2021.
He has been Leader of the Labour Party since 2014. He served under Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg as Minister of ...
, on Friday, November 19, 2021.[
]
Legacy
In 2019, the Yara Birkeland was a finalist in the annual Nor-Shipping '' Next Generation Ship competition.
See also
*Unmanned surface vehicle
An unmanned surface vehicle, unmanned surface vessel or uncrewed surface vessel (USV), colloquially called a drone boat, drone ship or sea drone, is a boat or ship that operates on the surface of the water without a crew. USVs operate with v ...
References
External links
Kongsberg video about ''Yara Birkeland''BBC video
August 2022
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yara Birkeland
Merchant ships of Norway
Ships built in Norway
Autonomous ships
Electric boats
Electric ships
Trondheimsfjord