Two ORE Catapult projects have secured funding from the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) round 2, funded by the UK Department for Transport, and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.
The first ‘eFoiler-CTV’ project (pictured), is a collaboration between ORE Catapult, Artemis Technologies, Tidal Transit and Lloyds Register.
It aims to accelerate the design and engineering of a 24m electric foiling Crew Transfer Vessel (CTV), aiming for deployment and real-world demonstration by March 2025.
The second project, the ‘SOV Offshore Charging System’, will develop an offshore charging concept for Service Operation Vessels (SOVs) with prototyping and testing.
This has been driven by an industry consortium of ORE Catapult, MJR, Blackfish Engineering, Bibby Marine and Clean Offshore.
Clean maritime regional partnership manager at ORE Catapult David Cooper said: “Currently the industry faces many challenges such as uncertainty on future fuel of choice, and the ‘chicken and the egg’ conundrum around regulations and supply chains for low emission technology.
“Projects such the e-Foiler and SOV Offshore Charging System provide a critical opportunity to demonstrate the use of new vessel technology that reduce emissions in offshore wind operations.
“These industry driven innovations will catalyse movement towards clean maritime technologies in the wider sector.”
By 2050, over 1000 SOVs will be required to service the European O&M market, causing a significant increase in emissions if current technology is used, ORE Catapult said.
Commercialisation of innovations such as the e-Foiler and SOV Offshore Charging System could significantly decarbonise CTV operations, it added.