Yara Birkeland will be the world’s first fully electric and autonomous container vessel with zero emissions.

Well, soon. Friday 29 April saw the naming of Yara Birkeland finally happening. This vessel and its grander mission have been in the works for years. With the world’s first fully electric, autonomous container feeder now in operation, the naming marked the culmination of great ideas and hard work, and the starting point for an ultra-exciting zero-emission future. ​​​​​​​

Owned and invented by Yara, the world-leading and Norwegian-based fertilizer company, Yara Birkeland will save 40 000 truckloads per year of products by taking cargo from road to sea. Kongsberg Group has added their technology to make the ship a reality, and Massterly is the vessel operator, technical manager, and crew supplier.

Although Yara Birkeland doesn’t go fully autonomous until 2025, it’s already purposely built for autonomous operations. There is a crew on board now that will permanently disembark in 2025. All crew members are also part of the remote control centre (ROC) staff, which is what Massterly calls their control centres. Each ROC is comparable to a flight controller, in this case, a centre overlooking all regional marine traffic and making sure all autonomous vessels perform as planned.
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