🇳🇴 Viridis Bulk Carriers receives 152 million

By Elías Thorsson September 27, 2023
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Press release from Arena Pro Ocean Hyway Cluster 

Ocean Hyway Cluster — Hub For Ocean

Enova has granted Viridis Bulk Carriers financial support of 152 million NOK to help finance the construction of 2 ammonia-powered bulk carriers.

The financial support to Viridis Bulk Carriers is part of a 709 million NOK package from Enova, a Norwegian government agency. The 709 millions is shared between a number of vessels and charging solutions for emission-free maritime transport. Espen Barth Eide, the Norwegian Minister for Environment and Climate, announced the award in a press conference in Oslo this morning:

“The world’s energy systems must become emission-free if we are to succeed in reaching the goals we have set ourselves in the Paris Agreement. For shipping, this requires us to adopt new technologies and sustainable zero-emission fuels. The projects that Enova supports make an important contribution to this. Here, the entire breadth is covered from demand, distribution and use of hydrogen and ammonia, development of technology for CO2 capture on board ships, all-electric operation of ships as well as charging facilities for these”.

The 709 million NOK from Enova is divided between:

  • 3 ammonia-powered vessels

  • 1 bunkering facility for ammonia

  • 2 hydrogen-powered vessels

  • 3 fully electric vessels

  • 3 high-power charging systems

  • 1 vessels with carbon capture

Deliveries starting in 2025

The investment grant is an important and necessary step to realize the carbon free transportation system including ships, cargo and bunkering that Viridis Bulk Carriers and its ecosystem of partners have developed for the past three years. The Viridis vessels which are designed to support charterers cargo capacity needs, have similar sailing range as the current fleet of short sea bulk vessels, and to maintain the crew and societal safety at the level of conventional vessels. Viridis Bulk Carriers expect to place orders for ships around year end 2023, with deliveries starting in 2025.

The ENOVA grant enables construction of these highly innovative vessels, which we expect will be amongst the very first ships to kickstart the ammonia-powered green shift in shipping, says André Risholm, Co-founder and board member at Viridis Bulk Carriers.

Collaboration with client partners & key suppliers

The Viridis vessels have been designed with the customer in focus and close collaboration with client partners and key suppliers. The company has collaborated with the 8 charterers in the ‘Flexbulk NH3 Ammonia Power‘ consortium project to ensure that cargo capacities and operational capabilities are just as future-proof as the power technology and emissions reductions. Ocean Hyway Cluster has the role as project controller. The vessel design is by Kongsberg Maritime, one of the world’s premier marine technology groups and the leading ship designers.

This is a key milestone in our long-term commitment to decarbonize the short sea bulk market together with forward-thinking clients and leading technology makers, says Espen Nordstrøm, Co-founder and board member at Viridis Bulk Carriers.

Ships and infrastructure being developed in parallel

Solving the chicken-and-egg dilemma of new ships and new bunkering infrastructure has been a key challenge that the partners around Viridis Bulk Carriers have been working to solve. Together with Yara Clean Ammonia, Azane Fuel Solutions and other partners in the “Ammonia fuel bunkering network” project, Viridis is making sure that ammonia fuel will be available by the time the vessels start operations.

We are building a new fuel value chain by leveraging partnerships from production to bunkering to providing an ammonia-powered shipping service. We solve the “chicken-and-egg” dilemma by having them both appear at the same time, says Peder N. Jarlsby, Board member at Viridis Bulk Carriers.

Ocean Hyway Cluster is part of the Flexbulk NH3 Ammonia Power project. You can read more about our projects here. This article is based on press releases from Viridis Bulk Carriers and Enova.

Originally published on 26 September.