Eco-friendly shipping MOU

The companies will focus on a project completing a detailed design of the Medaka eco-commuter ferry. The ferry will sport hybrid marine propulsion, a data management system, lithium-ion storage modules and flexible incorporated solar panels.

The aim is to start marketing the innovative solar electric urban passenger ferry across the Asia Pacific region later this year.

The MOU is a mutually beneficial arrangement for both parties to break more into the market. For AIMS, the attraction of the cooperation is to amass skills from EMP and for EMP, it’s a logical step forward in trying to break into the market in Asia.

Greg Atkinson, Eco Marine Power, said to The Motorship: “The MOU with AIMS is a big step forward as it means we will be working directly with a company that operates offshore support vessels and this demonstrates that the solutions we are developing are gaining acceptance in the market.”

He said to MS that across Asia there is a move towards developing sustainable economies. He added: “Our technologies can lower fuel consumption on large ocean going ships moving iron ore from Australia to Japan, provide a low emission urban water transport solution for places like Sydney and Hong Kong, plus be used on unmanned surface vessels that one day, may clean up pollution in our oceans.”

Other items the cooperation will be focusing on are a new project to develop a renewable energy solution onto an existing offshore support vessel. They also want to explore the possibility of working together during sea trials of EMP’s Aquarius MRE System and EnergySail technologies.