Auriga Leader, a freighter developed by shipping line Nippon Yusen K.K. and oil distributor Nippon Oil Corp., took off from a shipyard in the western city of Kobe, officials of the two firms said.

The huge freighter capable of carrying 6,400 automobiles is equipped with 328 solar panels at a cost of 150 million yen (1.68 million dollars), the officials said.

The ship will initially transport vehicles being sent for sale overseas by Japan’s top automaker Toyota Motor Corp. The project was conceived before the global economic crisis, which has forced automakers to drastically cut production as sales dwindle.

Company officials said the 60,213-tonne, 200-metre (660-foot) long ship is the first large vessel in the world with a solar-based propulsion system. So far solar energy has been limited to supporting lighting and crew’s living quarters.

The solar power system can generate 40 kilowatts, which would initially cover only 0.2 percent of the ship’s energy consumption for propulsion, but company officials said they hoped to raise the ratio.

The shipping industry has come under growing pressure to take part in efforts to curb global warming, which is blamed on carbon emissions.

Estimates say maritime transport accounts for anything from 1.4 percent to 4.5 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. But the industry remains largely unregulated due to its international nature.

Nippon Yusen, Japan’s largest shipping company, has set a goal of halving its fuel consumption and carbon-dioxide emissions by 2010.

Resource-poor Japan has been looking for ways to reduce its dependency on foreign oil (source: news.yahoo.com).

The new rules, however, only address sulfur and nitrogen oxide emissions. Meanwhile, carbon dioxide emissions from the same ships remain a major, and often overlooked, contributor to global warming.

The world’s shipping fleet comprises 300,000 ships, each a city block in length, and transports 90 percent of the world’s trade. In 2007, the fleet emitted nearly twice as much carbon dioxide as all of America’s cars combined. If the fleet were a country, it’d be ranked as the sixth largest producer of CO2, between Japan and Germany.

Not to mention that these ships use the dirtiest fuel available, creating a high percentage of unusable sludge that must be burned.

All in all, cargo ships are a major contributor to global warming, producing great amounts of the carbon dioxide that not only warms the planet but also leads to ocean acidification. The ships also generate black carbon, or soot, which is acutely dangerous to the Arctic. This particulate matter attaches itself to ice, causing the sun’s rays to be absorbed rather than deflected, melting the ice at an ever-faster rate. Faster-melting ice means more passable waters for ships in the Arctic, which means more black carbon, which means faster-melting ice …

No wonder the Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet.

The International Marine Organization’s new rules would begin to cut ships’ sulfur oxide emissions in coastal areas by 2015. But there is one way that cargo ships could easily and instantly reduce their carbon footprint: simply slowing down.

• The IMO has calculated that a speed reduction of just 10 percent by 2010 would result in a 23.3 percent reduction in emissions;
• One shipping company, Hapag-Lloyd, found that slowing ships by 20 percent reduced fuel costs by half;
• Slower cargo ships are roughly 10 times more fuel efficient than trucks and a hundred times more efficient than air transport — but as ship speeds increase, that advantage is wiped out.

In addition, shutting off ship engines in port — in other words, not idling a vehicle equivalent to 2,000 diesel trucks — would significantly reduce emissions. Better ship design that cuts water resistance is a technology that exists and that isn’t yet in common use. And, of course, there’s the dramatic — and not that far-fetched — concept of using kites to save fuel. These are all steps that could be taken much sooner than 2015.

The IMO’s new rules will reduce coastal emissions and protect public health, but they don’t begin to address the larger problem of ship emissions and global warming. The IMO has yet to demonstrate that it has the capacity to tackle this issue. In the meantime, the EPA should take up the slack. And if it doesn’t, well, I know of some conservationists who are already knocking on the EPA’s door (source: http://gristmill.grist.org/).

Scientists claim that the sailing routes via Russia and Canada are currently both open for shipping. Does this mean that Chinese container ships with electronics onboard will set sail to Rotterdam via the North Pole? Probably not … the North route is not ready at all for mass shipping.

August 31, 2008, ice specialist Mark Serreze from the American National Snow and Ice Data Center claimed via the British ‘The Independent’ that the Pole route via Canada and Russia is ice free!

In 2005 the Russian part was ice free while the Canadian was iced. Last year it was reversed. Now you can, temporary, sail around the North Pole. Willem Barentsz would have been chilled.

Is this going to happen more often? This means shorter shipping routes from Europe to Asia for a couple of months per year. Planner Trausti Vallson made some calculations in his book ‘How the world will change with global warming’ two years ago.

The distance Rotterdam-Shanghai via the Hope is 13,889 nautical miles or 27.6 sailing days. The route via the Suez canal is 19.1 days and via north Russia 17.6 days. From Rotterdam to Shanghai via the North Pole would save 8% of sailing time. From Rotterdam to Yokohama would even reduce sailing time 30%!.

So what are we waiting for? In order to able to sail around the North pole you have to meet stringent quality requirements and this makes it very expensive.

Minco van Heezen states that it can take decennia before the big shipping companies can meet these standards. There is interest for this route though …

Starting in 2009, Beluga Group will start its P-series from Bremen in Germany which in under construction at the moment. In this series are ships with the ice class E3. This means they can sail the North route without a ice breaker if the route is 90% ice free.

The expertise to built these ice class ships can be found at shipyards in Russia and Canada. Leader in this area is the Canadian shipping company Fednav which operate ships that can sail through 1.8 meter of ice!

According to Lloyd’s, Fednav’s bulk ships cost 150-220 million a piece what makes them twice so expensive.

The market for these ice class ships is not even in the ordering phase but is still at the drawing table.