Corvus Energy to develop maritime hydrogen fuel cell systems

Corvus Energy is set to start development and production of sustainable, large-scale maritime-certified hydrogen fuel cell systems. Production will be located in Bergen, Norway, with Toyota onboard as the supplier of mass-produced fuel cell technology.

The energy storage company is spearheading a collaboration with Norwegian partners Equinor, shipowners Norled and Wilhelmsen, ship design company LMG Marin, the NCE Maritime CleanTech cluster and R&D institution the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) to develop and produce modularised and cost-effective PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cell systems for the international marine market. The project has received €5.2mn in funding from state agency Innovation Norway. The development is scheduled to showcase its first marine fuel cell system onboard a vessel in 2023 and the product will be marine certified and available for commercial delivery from 2024.

Interest in hydrogen for maritime applications has been increasing rapidly, with hydrogen power seen as an important step to reach shipping’s ambitious goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050. Reducing the cost of fuel cells and increasing access to the technology is crucial to accelerate the transition. The initiative represents an important step towards achieving both goals by producing modularised systems not available on a large scale today.