World’s First Autonomous, Zero Emissions Ship to Be Ready by 2020

Norwegian maritime technology expert Kongsberg and its compatriot fertilizer producer Yara have teamed up on a project to build world’s first autonomous and zero emissions ship.

Named Yara Birkeland, the vessel will be the world’s first fully electric container feeder, the duo claims, adding that the ship would produce zero emissions.

Operation is planned to start in the latter half of 2018, shipping products from Yara’s Porsgrunn production plant to Brevik and Larvik in Norway. Yara Birkeland will initially operate as a manned vessel, moving to remote operation in 2019 and expected to be capable of performing fully autonomous operations from 2020......