Vard Holdings said it has been selected by the Norwegian fertilizer producer YARA to build an autonomous and electric-powered containership to move its products over short distances along Norway’s coastline.
Yara Birkeland will be a small ship carrying only 120 TEUs, but the project has drawn wide attention because of plans for it to operate without a crew and use an electric power plant.
Vard said the value of the contract is about 250 million Norwegian Krone ($29.6 million).
The ship will be built in Brevik, where one of five shipyards Vard has in Norway is located. Vard is 79.34 percent owned by Italy’s Fincantieri.
The ship will move cargo between YARA’s plant in Porsgrunn to ports in Brevik, about six nautical miles away, and Larvik, located about 32 nautical miles away. The company said it will both reduce air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions and improve road safety in a densely populated urban area.
YARA expects the ship is to be delivered in early 2020. It will initially operate with a crew, but the company plans for it to be fully autonomous by 2022.
The ship gets its name from Kristian Birkeland, a Norwegian scientist and industrialist who created an early process for manufacturing nitrogen fertilizer.