The encyclopedia · Engineering & Operations · Technical decision · 2017–2025
Yara's battery-electric autonomous ship replaces 40,000 diesel truck trips a year
The 120-TEU Yara Birkeland carries fertilizer between Porsgrunn and Brevik on batteries, replacing 40,000 diesel truck trips and 1,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.
Yara International · Kongsberg
the move
Yara makes fertilizer at Porsgrunn, Norway, and moved it the short distance to the port of Brevik by diesel truck — tens of thousands of journeys a year. The company decided the route itself was the problem to solve, not just the trucks on it.
With technology partner Kongsberg and shipbuilder VARD, Yara built the world's first fully electric, self-propelled container vessel: the 120-TEU, 80-metre Yara Birkeland, powered by a 6.8 MWh battery pack. It completed its maiden voyage in November 2021 and entered commercial operation in 2022.
The ship carries fertilizer between the two Norwegian ports, designed to cut 1,000 tonnes of CO2 a year and replace 40,000 diesel-powered truck trips annually, while removing noise and dust from populated areas. Operations are monitored from a shore control centre at Horten.
Yara and Kongsberg then tested the vessel through a two-year period toward certification as an autonomous, all-electric container ship, with supervised auto-docking and auto-crossing paving the way for fully autonomous voyages.
why it works
- The route was fixed and short, so the ship could be sized exactly to the job.
- Batteries and autonomy removed fuel and crew from the highest-cost, most repetitive leg.
- Replacing trucks with water freight cut emissions and road congestion in populated areas.
- It proved the concept publicly, becoming a template for other maritime electrification projects.
what transfers
Look at the shortest, most repetitive legs of your supply chain first — a fixed, boring route is where autonomy and electrification pay off earliest.
what came after
By its third year of commercial service in 2025, the Yara Birkeland had completed more than 250 voyages and transported over 35,000 containers, replacing roughly 35,000 diesel truck journeys, with about 1,000 tonnes of CO2 saved per year. Yara expanded the bet into green ammonia as future marine fuel, and Kongsberg's autonomous-ship technology is now being offered to other operators.
references
- Yara to start operating the world's first fully emission-free container ship
- World's First Fully Electric Autonomous Container Vessel, Yara Birkeland, Celebrates 3 Years of Service
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