The latest generation of car carrier arrived in early June. The vessel, Drive Green Highway, is notable for its green credentials, being fitted with high efficiency solar panels.
Drive Green Highway is the world’s biggest ship adapted for solar energy. She is almost 200m long, 38m wide and is operated by the Japanese shipping company K Line. The ship has the capacity to load 7,500 cars. When she recently visited CMP, just over 1,400 cars were unloaded in Malmö.
”We work continuously to ensure capacity and maintain CMP’s position as a leading car port. It is therefore important that we can receive the latest generation of car carrier, which is a few metres wider than its predecessor”, says Björn Larsson, Terminal Manager at CMP.
CMP’s facilities are ideal for receiving this type of really large car carrier, for example, in terms of depth of water, quays and all the services required.
Pure Car Truck Carriers (PCTC) are getting bigger all the time. As Drive Green Highway is wider, she can load about another 1,000 cars.
”The piloting restrictions have changed here in Malmö during the last year. That is also a prerequisite in enabling us to receive these larger ships and being able to grow together with the customer,” says Björn Larsson.
On board Drive Green Highway is the world’s most advanced system for solar energy. More than 900 high efficiency solar panels have been installed and they can supply 150 kW. This sets a new standard within shipping. No other ship can generate as much energy from the sun. The energy from the solar panels is used to power all LED lighting on board. The large number of panels have been produced specifically to cope with conditions in the warm and salty sea environment.
K Lines is one of Japan’s largest shipping companies and launched Drive Green Highway in February. She is the first in a series of ships that K Line calls the Drive Green Project.
What these ships have in common is that they have a lower environmental impact, for example, lower emissions of sulphur- and nitrogen oxides, as well as of carbon dioxide.
