Stena Line aims for 30% CO2 emissions reduction by 2030

Swedish ferry company Stena Line is accelerating the transition towards fossil-free shipping and presents its plan to reduce total CO2 emissions by as much as 30% until 2030.

Stena Line
Stena Line
Photo: Stena Line

Despite a challenging year, the shipping company continued to reduce its total carbon dioxide emissions in 2020. Emissions also decreased per nautical mile sailed by -2.3%/nm, which shows that the ships have become even more energy efficient in 2020.

“We are working hard to reduce our fuel consumption and emissions, while at the same time exploring tomorrow’s fuels and technologies,” Erik Lewenhaupt, Group Head of Sustainability at Stena Line, commented.

The main drivers behind the reduction of emission in 2020 are that we have introduced three new, and up to 30% more energy-efficient vessels, on the Irish Sea. We have also introduced renewable shore electricity during port calls in Kiel and five more ships in the fleet have been equipped with the AI assistant Stena Fuel Pilot to support our captains in operating the vessels in the most energy-efficient way.”

Stena Line claims it is already ten years ahead of international IMO shipping emission reduction targets. Even so the company has chosen to accelerate the transition towards fossil-free shipping and plans to reduce total CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030, which will be achieved, among other things, by launching the fossil-free vessel Stena Elektra on the Gothenburg-Frederikshavn route.

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By 2050, the shipping company aims to be completely fossil-free.

Stena Line’s carbon-roadmap

Stena Line has identified four key areas to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30% by 2030, in order to achieve the ambitious target to become completely fossil-free by 2050.

These include the electrification of shipping, exploring alternative fuels, fleet modernization and using artificial intelligence on board.

Electrification of shipping:

  • By 2030, the fossil-free ferry Stena Elektra will traverse the entire route on battery power only, a distance of 50 nautical miles.
  • Electrification of the company’s port and terminals continued during 2020 and today 99.8% renewable electricity is used within Stena Line. At 25% of Stena Line’s terminals, the ships connect to green electricity during port calls, which in 2020 reduced Stena Line’s carbon dioxide emissions by more than 13,000 tons, equal to the annual emissions from 7,200 passenger cars.

Exploring alternative fuels:

  • In 2015, Stena Line launched the world’s first ferry that can run on both diesel and methanol. The project at Stena Germanica on the line between Gothenburg and Kiel established methanol as ship fuel.
  • Stena Line investigates several alternative fuels such as hydrogen, fuel cells and in 2021 a test is planned with methanol recovered from residual steel production gases.

Modernising the fleet:

  • In 2020, three new next generation E-Flexer ferries have started operating on the Irish Sea. The ships are up to 30 % more energy efficient than previous vessels and are “gas ready”, prepared to be converted into gas, or methanol operation. In 2022, another two extended E-Flexers vessels will be delivered to Stena Line.
  • Over the past ten years, Stena Line has modernised the fleet through more than 360 small and large efficiency measures. These include actions such as changing bulbs, propellers and rudders, using IoT such as frequency-controlled ventilation on board and new environmentally friendly Selektope anti-fouling hull coatings.

Artificial intelligence onboard:

  • Stena Line’s captains have received a new helper on board, the AI assistant Stena Fuel Pilot, which supports them in operating the ship in the most efficient way. In 2020, Stena Fuel Pilot was installed on five ferries between Sweden and Germany and Sweden and Denmark. The plan is a fleet-wide rollout within two years.
  • Stena Fuel Pilot has the potential to reduce fuel consumption by up to 5% per ship per ship and sailing, but further potential for AI support for reduced fuel consumption is being investigated.

The ferry company operates 37 vessels on 17 routes in Northern Europe, with 25,000 sailings each year.