Fincantieri has launched a new strategy for its digital offering, unveiled its work for the ship of the future – and scooped a four-ship order from Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings
The ships, two for the Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Oceania Cruises brands respectively, are scheduled for delivery between 2026 and 2029. With gross tonnages ranging from 77,000 to 85,000 tonnes, and passenger capacities between 860 and 1,400, these vessels are slated to redefine luxury travel.
In addition to this milestone, Fincantieri has also entered into a letter of intent with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd for four additional units. These ships, expected for delivery between 2030 and 2036, will be the largest ever built for the Norwegian Cruise Line brand, with a gross tonnage of approximately 200,000 tonnes and the capacity to accommodate around 5,000 passengers each.
The Italian shipyard used Seatrade Cruise Global to reveal its significant contract and digital and green ship focuses.
Fincantieri chief executive and managing director Pierroberto Folgiero said at the shipyard’s press event at Seatrade Cruise Global, “We have launched a new strategy for our digital offering focused on the energy management and digital lifecycle of the ship, and how to work in the direction of remote controlled vessels up to autonomous vessels.”
He added, “It’s time for a company like Fincantieri to take care of the logical domain of the ship not just the physical domain. We are a design authority and we want to become a digital design authority of all the applications resident in a ship… we are working on new technologies to be embedded in new ships but also working on the existing, as there is a large fleet to be fitted.”
While IMO has set 2050 as the goal for net zero, Fincantieri has set its target for 2035. “We want to be a leader in net zero… every single strategy is to minimise the impact on the environment,” said Fincantieri vice president basic design Marco Bognolo.
There are five main areas for the shipyard: reducing the environmental footprint – not just looking at the vessel in operation but to try to minimise the environmental impact of the construction; investment in limiting emissions into the air; containment of the production of waste; reducing energy consumption; and limiting emissions into water – both liquid and noise.
Mr Bognolo highlights three main technological directions: the environment, the development of a circular economy and digitalisation. “To provide an efficient vessel we need to create a digital twin,” said Mr Bognolo.
Fincantieri is working on an energy digital product that replicates all consumers on board from the initial design of the vessel to optimise systems. “Use of data analytics and AI will help operators of the vessel to identify best practices and provide guidance to crew members.”
Elsewhere, Fincantieri provides shore connection cubicles on both sides of vessels so it can connect to shore power on both sides.
Mr Bognolo also singled out hydrodynamics, saying, “We simulate thousands of hull forms with AI until we identify the best one.”
He highlighted the topic of fuels. “They are the other side of vessel efficiency and the environmental footprint. There will not be a single fuel.”
The shipyard has looked at the implication of fuel on ship design. Key findings here include that methanol needs 140% more space than HVO, ammonia 190% and liquid hydrogen more than 300%. “All this information is part of the start of vessel design,” Mr Bognolo said.
“We need to commit to a variety of different technologies, and those available today may not be best in class for tomorrow so we need to build into the vessel design the flexibility to refit those vessels in the future when the fuel or technology will be available.”
Fincantieri has been involved in the prototype installation of fuel cells and in the first ever large-scale SOFC fuel cell fuelled by hydrogen or LNG with a conversion system.
Mr Bognolo said, “LNG is the best option for large vessels. We built Sun Princess, a best-in-class vessel. But we are not stopping there. We move from that to what we believe will be the future. Our experience of fuels and hydrogen is that in 2022, we delivered the first research vessel with fuel cells and a hydrogen containment system. The third option is methanol. Its characteristics are very stable and it may be one of those fuels contributing to the creation of net-zero vessels. We have already designed and are going to build vessels provided with a predisposition to methanol.” This would allow them to run on methanol once the fuel is available.
Longer term, Fincantieri is looking at exploiting wind-assisted propulsion, solar propulsion and several systems for carbon capture.
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