Leclanché, Kongsberg Join Forces for Green Ships Push

Nordic marine technology company Kongsberg Maritime has selected Swiss battery maker  Leclanché, one of the world’s leading storage solutions companies, as its battery partner and supplier of customised marine energy storage solutions.

The partnership contributes to Kongsberg's new generation of hybrid power solutions, which are set to deliver game-changing efficiencies and reduce the environmental impact of transportation with cutting-edge autonomous and crewed vessel newbuilds.

Leclanché’s batteries will be an integral part of Kongsberg’s hybrid solutions. Through the partnership, Leclanché will deliver one of the largest single marine battery system order to date for 9 vessels totalling 45MWh batteries. The systems will be built at Leclanché’s facility in Switzerland with the cells manufactured at Leclanché’s Willstätt facility in Germany.

The new partnership with KONGSBERG underscores Leclanché’s strategy of being a vertically integrated system supplier to growth markets such as merchant marine and fleet transportation, moving beyond being a ‘pure play’ cell producer.

Leclanché made an early investment in developing a DNV GL certified battery system for marine applications, and is the first battery supplier to fully comply with the stringent 2015 regulations that are currently in force. DNV GL is an international accredited registrar and classification society for maritime vessels headquartered in Høvik, Norway.

Frode Kaland, EVP Supply Chain for Kongsberg Maritime said: “Leclanché’s ability to cover the complete value chain from design and production of lithium cells in Europe, to full battery systems certified for marine applications together with our proprietary hybrid power technology positions us together as a single, unified supplier of electrification solutions that will deliver lower operational expenditure and enable environmental sustainability for all vessel types”.

Anil Srivastava, CEO of Leclanché said: "The partnership between Kongsberg Maritime, one of the world’s leading providers of electrification solutions to the maritime industry and Leclanché has the potential to be game changing as it brings low and zero-emission solutions to the sizeable and fast growing electric and hybrid marine market."