Definitely
talking about innovations in ship-building we should mention the
car carrier Auriga Leader. The ship was finished at the end of 2008
year by the Asian ship-builder Nippon Yusen K.K. but yeasterday
was launched by the ship-operator NYK Line. The car carrier has
200.00 meters length and beam of 32.26 meters. The depth of the
ship is 34.52 meters and while fully loaded the ship has draft of
9.70 meters. The car carrier Auriga Leader is really not so large
ship, but new, modern and so much innovated. The feature, which
got our attention was integrated 328 solar panels on board, which
will give about 10% from the power of the cargo vessel. The ship
has deadweight of 18,758 metric tons and gross tonnage of 60,213
gross tons. The cargo capacity of the car carrier is 6,400 units.
The ship was designed and built in Kobe Shipyard in Japan, which
is high prove for quality of the ship and materials used. The ship
will be the first of the new generation ships, driven
by solar power. Actually on board of Auriga Leader is inserted only
a little solar panels, which will reduce the main engine work and
will decrease the fuel consumption, at too high price. The price
for the new innovation on board was 1.6 million USD, which actually
will be pretty hard to be refunded and the proper work for long
time is still not sure, but ship-owners decided to invest in technology.
Actually the panels are not installed directly on the
ship, but are rather installed on the ship’s car-carrier and
then connceted to the ship. The technology is in case to protect
the solar panels from bad weather and sea. The ship is now on bearth
of Port of Long Beach and even before entering into service got
the interest of the all community. The ship will be open forr visitors
to see this innovation in ship-building before being equipped for
traveling between Japan and Europe. The car carrier is engaged with
contract with Toyota Corp for carrying automobile for the company
to markets in Europe and North America. date: 3rd July, 2009
