[ 27 ] LOWEST POSSIBLE EMISSIONS FOOTPRINT With their ability to manage freight and passenger vehicles, the Spirit-class was quite unique when introduced in 2011–12. But, despite their success, Spirit of Britain and Spirit of France are somehow ships from another era, being conceived at a time when energy transition was not as high on the agenda as it is today. When designing the ships in 2007–8, P&O Ferries, their naval architects and Finnish builders had gone to great lengths to reduce fuel consumption which was on a par with the way smaller 1987-built ships they replaced. Admittedly, the price of fuel was the main driver to keep consumption as low as possible. Fifteen years on, this is a totally different story as climate change has prompted the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and EU to set ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from shipping. Fossil fuels will become obsolete but as long as non-fossil alternative fuels are still few and far between, naval architects and shipowners primarily focus on reducing energy consumption. There is a plethora of instruments on the market to reduce fuel and energy consumption, from waste heat recovery systems, silicon paints for hulls, energy efficient lighting and HVAC systems to fuelefficient engines. Much of this technology was taken into consideration when designing the Fusion-class but the mother of all energy savings remains speed reduction, especially given the non-linear relationship between speed and fuel consumption — fuel consumption will spiral when increasing the service speed from e.g. 18 to 23 knots. Unlike deep-sea bulk carriers or crude oil tankers, ferries have to adhere to strict sailing schedules so slow steaming is not an option. Dover–Calais crossing times take 90 minutes with ferries making up to five return crossings per day. And, when further trimming turnaround times, up to six return sailings can be offered. With speed reduction being so beneficial in terms of emissions reductions, it was one of the key elements factored in when designing the Fusion-class. But what was the Columbus egg to achieve this without jeopardising the 90-minute crossing time? In short, it was all about avoiding timeconsuming 180° turning manoeuvres in port by implementing a double-ender design. P&O FERRIES / OSK DESIGN THINK TANK During the planning stage, numerous workshops were held in Channel House, P&O Ferries’ headquarters. P&O Ferries had even created a dedicated Ship of the Future meeting room, serving as kind of think tank in which all departments had their say. What follows are a few extracts from the P&O Ferries/OSK Design think tank. Design concepts considered to deliver the objective The commercial imperatives are: ❱ Maximise our share of a growing freight market, discouraging any new entrants ❱ Take a quantum leap forward in reducing our costs per unit, overtaking DFDS’ current advantage ❱ Differentiate our customer offer from those of other ferry operators in Europe ❱ Close the gap on the speed advantage of Eurotunnel. Measures include: ❱ Reduction of speed/engine power ❱ Double-ender vs single-ender ❱ Deck capacity high space (HH) ❱ Deck capacity fixed Deck 7, or mezzanine decks ❱ Passenger capacity (max) ❱ Area (m2) per passenger ❱ Better manoeuvrability ❱ Optimisation of LSA configuration ❱ Reduction of vessel size ❱ Reduce harbour time. Design concept single- or double-ender Important to select the optimum vessel concept design. Objectives are: To ensure that the replacement vessels enable the portfolio of ships that we deploy to be 50% cheaper on a cost per PCU (passenger car unit) capacity basis than the portfolio of ships we run today by: ❱ 50% reduction of Darwin-class inflation adjusted crew cost ❱ 50% lower fuel consumption per leg than the Spirit-class ❱ 20% lower VPX (vessel port expenses) per leg than the Spirit-class ❱ 50% lower maintenance spend than the Spirit-class ❱ 20% lower other vessel costs than the Spirit-class ❱ 30% lower refit costs on a five-year survey cycle than the Spirit-class. SHIPBUILDING
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