Building greener ships

‘It was inspiring to see Höegh Autoliners’ approach to using new green technology to reduce emissions in the shipping industry. This ship will run on LNG at first, but can be converted to ammonia when that technology has matured. The ship is also equipped with solar panels and can connect to electrical power on shore. In future, it will be able to operate with zero emissions,’ said the Prime Minister.

Mr Støre spoke during the naming ceremony for the Höegh Borealis, the second of 12 similar Aurora-class vessels that Höegh is having built at the China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMI) shipyard.

Aurora-class ships are currently the largest vessels that are purpose-built to carry automobiles and other rolling cargo. Höegh Borealis is a vessel type known as a RoRo ship (roll on, roll off) and can carry as many as 9 100 cars.   

There are 11 Norwegian companies involved in the construction of the vessel, including Kongsberg Maritime and DNV, both of which took part in the visit to the shipyard.

‘Norwegian businesses can provide world-class advanced green technologies. They are helping to build the solutions of the future,’ said Prime Minister Støre.

The ship will soon be ready to sail from Shanghai. Its maiden voyage will be to Japan and onwards to Singapore, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK.