Marine battery manufacturer AYK Energy has completed a battery renewal deal for four Svitzer hybrid tugs operating at Chevron Australia’s Gorgon LNG terminal in Barrow Island, Western Australia.
AYK Energy managed the original battery installation for the diesel electric tugs which were specially built for the Gorgon terminal in 2012. The original battery systems were at end of life, so the old batteries have been recycled and replaced with new AYK Aires battery systems on the Svitzer Euro, Svitzer Perentie, Svitzer Boodie, and Svitzer Dugong.
As battery technology has advanced considerably since 2012, the new Aires batteries will have twice the energy density of the originals, providing greater power and range. In total AYK built more than 5 MWh of battery power as part of the deal, equating to 1.3 MWh on each tug. The batteries will take up to 1.5h to fully recharge. The battery systems were built at AYK’s 5000m2 automated manufacturing plant in Zhuhai China, which opened in 2023, and has a production capacity of 300 MWh/yr with the ability to expand to 1GWH.
AYK Energy founder Chris Kruger said: “It is brilliant to be working on these four Svitzer tugs again, which are real trailblazers as some of the first diesel-electric hybrid tugs ever built. The key now is to make them even more effective using the latest battery innovations. These new Aires batteries are not only much more powerful, they are safer, cheaper to buy, easier to install and maintain and they can run for much longer periods. We are showing how marine batteries can play a fundamental role in decarbonising the maritime industry right here and now. The technology is here, it is proven and it works. We encourage more operators to consider switching to batteries as part of their decarbonisation targets.”
AYK Energy is said to be seeing a surge in demand for its batteries across the maritime industry with the manufacturer supplying tugs, OSVs, superyachts, fishing vessels, work boats and container vessels as part of their power mix. Sales are projected to reach 100MWh in 2025.
Kruger said: “A few years ago AYK was still a new entrant in the market but we are now a more established, proven business. Last year we made progress positioning ourselves to win the bigger battery projects. It is very encouraging that we are now winning these bigger orders competing with established players showing our technology not only costs less but is more advanced. We are now actively looking for investors to drive our growth further with plans to build factories in the US and Europe.”
AYK’s new batteries for the Svitzer tugs are of the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) type, said to be safer and with greater energy density than Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC).
Kruger added: “NMC has been the most commonly used battery chemistry because of its supposed greater density, but its chemistry is known to be much more dangerous and more costly than LFP. AYK is now showing that LFP can outperform NMC and deliver greater energy density, higher safety and better value.”
Image: Svitzer’s hybrid tugs have been refitted with improved AYK battery systems (source: AYK)
