Welcome back to Cheddar News, a report from UK
Research and Innovation found that the shipping industry makes up
at least 2.5% of the world's total C. 02
emissions? It's a problem that energy solutions company Lachlan
, she is trying to solve, founded in 1909
, the company has been developing and producing batteries for
more than 100 years now and today its lithium ion
batteries used to electrify not just ships but also railroad
locomotives, trucks and specialty vehicles. Here now to
discuss is the chief technology and industrial officer of Leconte
Pierre blanc Pierre, welcome to the show. Most
people are familiar with the automotive E. V market
, but can you talk to us about what's happening
with the fleet tv space, which involves trucks,
trains, busses and even boats first of all.
Hello, thank you very much for for having me
on your show. So yeah, I think a
lot of people are far more aware of, you
know, the E. V. Market passenger cars
because it's more visible, um, it's more accessible
and, and you know, it has a direct
impact on, on their decisions. Now, the
, the heavy duty applications which cover marine railway Freight
transport um, do contribute substantially to the CO2 emissions
um, and have a whole set of different requirements
when it comes to electrification. First of all,
they used far more than the car, a passenger
car is parked most of the time, whereas a
vessel will be sailing a train is running most of
the day. So a different set of requirements requiring
slightly different technologies that contributing in the same way to
reducing the overall CO two emissions. How large pierre
is the overall fleet electrification market because this isn't something
I knew about until I was researching this interview is
the marine ship market, a big component of the
overall fleet electrification market. So the market is growing
, I'd say it's it's still quite a bit behind
the tv market. Um E. V market started
several years ago that there's been a slight delay in
in in the In the grow of the of the
marine and railway markets. Um it's it's 14 to
grow tenfold over the next 7-8 years. Um to
over 100 gigawatt hours, let's put in in capacity
terms 100 gigawatt hours per per year. Um There
are, it's driven partially by by changing regulations.
A lot of ports are imposing zero emission or reduced
emissions import areas which is leading either to full electrification
for short haul vessels or hybridization for for vessels that
have have to do longer longer trips and and still
rely on some conventional powertrain, I want to go
back to something you just said the pollution that comes
from ships, how does that compare to cars?
I want to make sure I heard right, you
you're saying ships actually cause more pollution because cars are
parked the majority of the time, I just want
to So ships ships will operate longer longer periods of
time. A ship will typically operate 18, 20
hours a day, whereas whereas the car will,
will be used maybe one hour a day. So
a big difference in terms of utilization. Another difference
is that when you're looking at ships and you'll have
a variety of ships. Ships tend to use cheaper
fuel, heavier fuel, which is more polluting as
well. So you have these 22 aspects of which
are contributing to increasing the the impact of shipping industry
on, on, on the carbon footprint. One
coming from the fuel, the cost of the fuel
that they use and they use low grade fuels and
the other one is operating much longer time. What
work is like a banshee doing to make the marine
industry more sustainable. And are there any projects planned
in North America? So, you know, we
are a battery company. So we're not, we're
not making the ships, but we got, we
worked very closely with the ship manufacturers, with,
with the shipyards and the ship owners um, in
electrifying. We, we have a number of projects
running which are projects vessels running which are either fully
electrified. Um, so 100% electric and quite a
substantial number which are hybrids, which we, which
are basically put into the category of zero emission import
. So, as soon as they get into the
vicinity of support, they go into a zero emission
um, the big focus or the big pressure on
, on, on, on doing this has been
originated in, in europe and mainly in northern europe
Scandinavian region where, where there's a lot of ferry
and they're very conscious on, on the environmental impact
. But now we have started delivering the first um
, ferries to North America in particular to, to
Canada Ontario Lake where the ferries are on site now
and they'll be entering operation in the coming months and
these will be full electric vessels as you well know
more emissions, which is certainly a good sign like
you well know, Pierre a wide range of industries
continue to be impacted by supply chain issues. Can
electrifying these fleet vehicles help when it comes to that
, just about the supply chain. It can help
to a certain extent. Obviously, the battery industry
is also submitted to the supply chain issues right now
. Um, things are starting to recover, but
there will be still are safe for the, for
the coming 12 months. Probably there will still be
some some some difficulties. But one of the big
pushes to be less reliant on, on the supply
chain to, to have more local ability to supply
the energy to supply the medium for storing it and
not rely on, on, on gas or fuel
coming from, from countries which, you know,
where supply can be cut from one day to the
next or reduced and affect your ability to uh,
to shift things around. So it is contributing heavily
to a more local economy. The International Maritime Association
has set a target to cut in the shipping industry
emissions by 50% by 2050, that's a lofty number
and 2050, especially when it comes to climate change
will be here before we know it, what has
to happen in order for this to ultimately be achieved
here. So to meet those targets that there will
be a number of things that are required and our
ship shipping shipping can be categorized into short haul,
long haul, medium haul shipping. The variety of
technologies needed to decarbonization, different applications is going to
be different when you're looking at the short haul,
which could be and most often lee is pure battery
. Um when you go to long haul, the
battery is not going to be the, the sole
solution, it's going to be combined with alternative solutions
, you might have clean gas, um natural gas
as a medium for, for the generators, you
might have fuel cell technologies, but you are going
to see a combination of different technologies needing to come
together in order to address the targets that have been
put forward, which are relatively ambitious targets here.
If I can ask you one more question before you
go other than each transport, we know lee Clancy's
other business unites including stationary storage solutions, battery systems
like you mentioned, what is the work your company
is doing in those specific areas away from each transport
. So when you look at the transport, it's
part of an overall ecosystem. Um give you the
example of the ferries that are being installed and put
into operation in in Canada, these ferries need to
be charged. Um The the infrastructure for charging is
is not powerful enough to charge these batteries. These
are large batteries which require a lot of power.
So we're also having to ad storage facilities onshore that
are going to regulate the power and allow for fast
charge of these. Very so it's extending beyond the
vehicle like that and and it's going to to the
grid, it's going to the the infrastructure um it's
it's really expanding the ecosystem to manage these low carbon
footprint technologies and integrate them into the much broader ecosystem
which is uh encompassing the grid the generation. How
how do you integrate as much renewable energy? Again
, a battery is as clean as the energy that's
used the charges. So you you you need to
use clean energy charging it if you want to have
a meaningful impact. So all of this needs to
come together and all of this will require not just
addressing the transport side but also the stationary side,
the grid side and the renewable energy integration. Well
it is so great to talk to you Pierre this
is such a fascinating aspect of climate Pierre blanc.
Chief technology and industrial officer for lou Clancy. Thank
you so much. Again Pierre