Japanese companies jointly announced Friday the official completion of a carrier ship with "Hybrid Power Supply System", built at a shipyard in the western Japanese harbor city of Kobe, with the aim to reduce CO2 emissions while berthed, local press reported.

The "Emerald Ace", a 60,200-ton car carrier that combines solar panels with diesel generators, was built at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s Kobe Shipyard and was delivered to Mitsui O.S.K. Lines on Friday afternoon.

The 200-meter vessel, which can carry 6,400 passenger cars, was co-developed by the Osaka-based consumer electronics maker Panasonic Corp. which supplied the ship with a total of 768 panels of its double-sided photovoltaic module on the top deck and 2.2 MWh of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. The solar power panels have an output capacity of 160 kilowatts, enough to power 50 average households.

Panasonic said that the electric power generated in the solar panels and stored in the batteries, will be mainly used while the ship is in harbor, allowing the diesel generators to be turned off. The firm also said that the lithium-ion batteries installed at the bottom of the ship will be used as ballast without affecting the storage capacity.

The report added that the ship was the last commercial vessel to be built at the Kobe shipyard as a result of reorganization of the shipbuilder's business strategy.