World's largest electric container ship starts regular service: 'A new benchmark for the transformation for the shipping industry'

The main limiting factor is simply the massive size of container ships.

The global shipping industry is responsible for roughly 3% of all planet-overheating air pollution, as most container ships are massive vessels powered by burning dirty fuels. Now, the world's largest battery-electric container ship, Greenwater 01, has started regular service between Shanghai and Nanjing, Interesting Engineering reported.

The Greenwater 01 was developed by China Ocean Shipping Group, also known as "Cosco." If more electric container ships follow, it could completely overhaul the industry for the better.

The ship, with "zero emissions, pollution and noise has set a new benchmark for the transformation for the shipping industry towards the goals of low carbon and environmentally friendliness," Cosco reportedly wrote on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, per the South Morning China Report.

Other recent attempts at creating more planet-friendly container ships have focused primarily on using less environmentally harmful fuels, such as hydrogen or ammonia. However, while they produce no planet-overheating emissions when used, the processes used to make them are highly polluting, meaning that they are less-than-ideal solutions.

A battery-powered container ship is a more straightforward solution, but the main limiting factor is its massive size. The Greenwater 01 is 394 feet long and 78 feet wide, and the main battery needed to power it has a capacity of over 50,000 kilowatt-hours — more energy than it would take to power four average-sized households for an entire year. Even more battery capacity can be added for longer journeys.

However, as battery and clean energy storage technology continues to improve and become more efficient, there is no reason that more container ships shouldn't become electric, bringing the industry closer to true carbon neutrality and drastically reducing its impact on the overheating of our planet.

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The Greenwater 01 is expected to save a whopping 3,217 tons of carbon pollution per year. Hopefully, that's only the beginning.