Energy Observer will be in Cape Town for her major event stopover in Africa
by Energy Observer 24 May 2023 09:55 UTC
12-20 June 2023
Energy Observer © Energy Observer Productions - George Conty
The laboratory vessel, self-sufficient in energy and advocating for energy transition, continues her navigation around-the-world, for the sixth consecutive year.
The 80th stopover of her Odyssey will be in Cape Town, South Africa, where the vessel will be docked alongside her educational exhibition village at the V&A Waterfront from June 12 to 20. This stopover will be held in a particular context, at a time when energy has become a key issue for South Africa and the entire continent.
Energy Observer, a unique vessel
Leaving in 2017 from Saint-Malo, her home port, Energy Observer is sailing the seas for a round-the-world Odyssey planned until 2024. The vessel has already sailed more than 50,000 nautical miles (twice around the world!), conducted 79 stopovers (from Paris to London, from St. Petersburg to the Arctic Circle, from Panama to the Galapagos, from San Francisco to Singapore), including 16 with her traveling educational village, and visited more than 40 countries.
Developed from an award-winning legendary catamaran, Energy Observer is a laboratory for the ecological transition designed to push back the limits of zero-emission technologies. Hydrogen, solar power, wind power, and hydropower: all solutions are experimented with, tested, and optimized to make clean energy a concrete reality accessible to all.
"Energy Observer is an experimental platform for the energies of tomorrow. A smart, revolutionary vessel that sails without harming the planet. Her electric propulsion is powered by renewable energies, including sun, wind, and hydropower. But what makes her unique is her ability to store energy in the form of hydrogen produced from seawater, a technology that allows her to navigate in total autonomy. Today, it is necessary to give meaning to innovation, to put it at the service of the challenges facing humanity." - Victorien Erussard, Captain and founder of Energy Observer.
An Odyssey to accelerate the energy and ecological transition
Faced with the multiple challenges facing humanity around the world, the main missions of Energy Observer's Odyssey are to accelerate the transition through innovation by demonstrating that the onboard technologies and energy mix work in extreme environments and can be replicated on a larger scale both ashore and at sea.
As the first French ambassador for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, this Odyssey also aims to explore all the solutions for the ecological transition and to raise awareness of this necessary transition among all public: from decision-makers to industry professionals, through a series of inspiring and educational content (documentary films, web-series, scientific articles, traveling exhibition)
A just energy transition
South Africa, the continent's second-largest economy, is facing multiple challenges on the energy front. Power cuts punctuate the country's daily life, and the transition to a less carbon-intensive energy mix is as much a question of social justice as it is of public health.
The country - which is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 - does not lack the potential to develop renewable energies, nor the ambition to support the gradual phase-out of coal: a resource that remains at the heart of economic development providing more than 92,000 jobs and serving as the country's principal source of energy and electricity. The social impact of an energy transition on direct and indirect workers thus remains a significant concern.
In this context, during the COP26 in Glasgow, France, along with the European Union, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States, committed to support the Just Energy Transition to accelerate the decarbonization of the South African economy by accompanying the country in its gradual exit from coal. They established three priority focuses: the energy sector, green hydrogen, and electric vehicles.
The roadmap of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals for which Energy Observer is the first French ambassador illustrates the paradox of many countries: how to guarantee access to electricity for all while reducing the CO2 emissions linked to its production? How to accompany the phase-out of coal without risking an economic and social crisis?
The deep interconnection between energy, economic development, and social justice will be at the heart of Energy Observer's stopover program, which will mobilize the main players in the energy, hydrogen, and low-carbon mobility sectors as well as institutional around the laboratory vessel: a demonstrator of virtuous energy systems that can be replicated on a larger scale.
Schoolchildren, academics, associations, and the general public will be able to discover solutions developed across the world that offer a positive and concrete perspective on energy transition, as well as an exclusive audiovisual production broadcast in the exhibition village throughout the event.
Practical information
Dates: June 12 to 20
Opening of the exhibition village: from June 12 to 18, from 10 am to 6 pm every day - Free entrance
Address docking and village: Jetty 2, Victoria and Alfred Waterfront - Cape Town, 8001, South Africa
*The vessel will be visible but cannot be visited by the general public