Built as a floating laboratory for renewable energy technologies, the 100-foot Energy Observer has logged 63,040 nautical miles without burning any fossil fuels.

The shipping industry is a major culprit when it comes to releasing carbon emissions into our atmosphere. According to the European Commission, in 2018 global shipping emissions represented 1,076m tonnes of CO2 and were responsible for around 2.9% of global emissions caused by human activities.

In a bid to reduce the climate change impact of shipping activities, in 2013 French-based Energy Observer set itself a mission to create the first self-sufficient vessel capable of drawing energy only from zero-emission technologies. Four years later in 2017, the Energy Observer catamaran was launched.

It set sail with an onboard energy mix including hydrogen, solar, wind and water power. The goal was to test and optimise these technologies in hostile and extreme environments as the vessel crisscrossed the oceans.

It is currently in the...