Welcome efficiency. Welcome electric.
Maritime transport emits more than 900 million tons of CO2 annually and is responsible for approximately 2.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Electrification is the way forward for short sea and inland shipping in harbors, rivers, and fjords. In transitioning vessels from diesel to pure electric power, the future holds great potential to operate shorter routes by electric ferries: in Europe alone, around 900 ferries operate on shorter routes — all with a potential to be electrified for zero-emission transport.
It's time to electrify marine
To meet the changing demands from regulators, customers, and operators on how we power the vessels of tomorrow, the marine industry requires a new level of flexibility. At the same time, it's vital that we don't compromise the speed and efficiency of today's solutions. This means looking towards electrification of vessels on the path towards a sustainable future.
Our ambition is to help you achieve your marine electrification goals. Because together we can create a sustainable future powered by electricity. We want to make that transformation seamless and economical, by allowing you to embrace electrification at scale without compromise. That way you can run fully optimized applications that you can always rely on. To achieve this, we also need to integrate renewables and clean energy into tomorrow's smart energy systems powering marine vessels.
Decarbonizing shipping
Download our ''Decarbonizing shipping'' whitepaper and find out how Norway is setting the pace for vessel electrification at scale. At Danfoss Drives, we work every day in marine decarbonization. We operate in many countries with diverse stakeholders: policymakers, shipbuilders, OEMs, system integrators, and not least, vessel owners. This whitepaper looks at three key issues in marine decarbonization and speaks about the main factors influencing success.
Download whitepaper
Our approach
At Danfoss Drives, we provide flexible power converters and drives with high power density to run all hybridized and electrified applications. We are a leading component provider across various marine applications. And with an independent and original approach to systems, we enable you to design the best system possible with low complexity. From hybridization to shaft generators and shore supply, we tailor the solution to your specific needs, so you get a plug-and-play system with maximum performance and reliability.
Many vessel types from small shuttle ferries to huge aircraft carriers benefit from converting to fully electric or hybrid technology for cleaner, more efficient performance. The benefits are clear business drivers:
- Improved vessel performance
- Reduced emissions
- Lower operating costs due to lower fuel consumption
- Lower maintenance costs
- Reduced noise levels
- Improved long-term efficiency of the power supply system
Acting as partners
Danfoss provides key components and system design to optimize the functionality of electric vessels, typically short sea or inland waterway vessels. Drives and power converters from Danfoss control the flow of energy between batteries, motors, chargers and power in the cabin. Electric motors ensure that propulsion is silent and efficient, and they are also powered by Danfoss drives. Charging from onshore is controlled by a Danfoss grid converter, and a DC/DC converter manages the batteries. Even the crane hydraulics are run by a drive, so they can be powered by the batteries.
Apart from the high-performance drives, there’s another reason to choose Danfoss: we freely share our knowledge and act as partners.
At our Marine Competence Center in Holmestrand, Norway you can boost your application competence in grid converters, DC/DC converters, generators, commissioning, troubleshooting, and more. In-person or on-demand training is available.
Full design freedom to say: Goodbye CO2. Hello zero emissions.
How do we put our design approach to work? We give the customer full design freedom then share our knowledge and work flexibly to engineer a solution to fit their needs exactly. A good example is the Astrid Helene workboat. This is one of the world’s first fully electric workboats, designed and built by Grovfjord Mekanske Verksted, Norway. With no engine noise, no diesel fumes, zero emission, and exceptional maneuverability, it reduces emissions on site at the Northern Lights salmon farm by approximately 90 tonnes CO2 annually — the average emissions of a diesel-powered fish farm workboat.
Read the full case story or take a scroll through the interactive story.
Marine Competence Center in Holmestrand, Norway
This Danfoss competence center dedicated to marine electrification is open to all industry professionals. It houses the Marine Academy where you can boost your application competence in grid converters, DC/DC converters, generators, commissioning, troubleshooting, and more. In-person or on-demand training is available.
Learn more about our training offerings
Contact our experts
Products
Learn more about our product offering
Enter a new dimension of opportunities with this ultra-compact drive. As well as high power density, iC7-Marine gives you a powerful combination of intelligence and shaft performance, ready for the most challenging of applications.
Well-suited to applications where air quality is critical, space is limited and efficient heat transfer is required. Active Front-end (NXA), Non-regenerative Front-end (NXN), Brake Chopper (NXB) and Inverter (NXI) configurations are available.
Maximizes the energy yield in hybrid solutions and helps improve performance by bringing energy support close to the consumption.
Cases
Future of the Fjords represents a new standard of environmentally responsible fjord tourism, as the first fully electric carbon fiber vessel in the world.
The Hareid-Sulesund ferry operator has reduced CO2 emissions by 7000 tonnes annually with the introduction of electric vessels.
Every year, the first fully commercial electric ferry in Denmark shuttles 1.8 million passengers across a 4 km strait. The future holds big potential to operate shorter routes using electric ferries.
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Meeting the challenges
In marine electrification, we are constantly overcoming new challenges to optimize performance and efficiency. Our maritime engineers are at the forefront of DC grid implementation, and know how to extract the extra energy saving benefits of combining DC grid, energy storage and/or variable speed generators. And the challenges? We engineer solutions to them. For instance, we have figured out how to provide the more sophisticated protection specially required for DC grids.
Learn more about challenges in a DC grid
How does shore supply help ports meet emission targets? We can help retrofit vessels for shore supply compatibility.
Use different types of energy at the same time to bridge the gap between energy generation and consumption.
Reduce maritime emissions and boost performance with diverse marine and offshore solutions from Danfoss.
Stay up to date with Danfoss Drives
Danfoss is pleased to announce that its Director of Industry Affairs, Marie Hammer, has been elected President of the Variable Speed Drives (VSD) Group and a member of the CEMEP Presidential Board. She will succeed Janne Kuivalainen.
Danfoss is proud to announce the expansion of its Marine Service Partner network with Semco Maritime as an additional dedicated partner for the Marine & Offshore sector. This partnership enhances service offerings, ensuring world-class maritime support, faster response times, a single point of contact, and unmatched expertise.
JAPAN: Danfoss Drives is proud to drive the building of an EV tugboat and a battery shore supply system, taking another step towards meeting the 2050 IMO standard.