The major Italian superconductors and sea technology companies are leading a European initiative for electric ships that intends to extend the average life of batteries, improve energy efficiency on board, and minimize the size of electrical equipment placed in hulls using revolutionary energy storage methods. In brief, a system to be employed when the batteries are used for propulsion as well as when they are used to provide energy to the ship in general. The V-access (Vessel advanced clustered and coordinated energy storage systems) project, funded by the EU Commission with 5 million euros, brings together the efforts of 14 international partners, 10 of which are Italian companies and research centers or foreign realities controlled by Italian companies: Fincantieri and its two Norwegian companies Vard, Asg Superconductors, Rina Germany and Rina Hellas, RSE (Research on the energy system), and the universities of Trieste, Genoa, the Politecnico di Milano. These are joined by Skeleton Technologies from Estonia, Sintef Energi and Sintef Ocean from Norway, and the University of Birmingham. The goal of the research plan is to connect the batteries with a storage system consisting of a magnet and a superconducting cable (both made by ASG) with a group of supercapacitors (built by Skeleton), integrated into an innovative on-board direct current electricity network to control the energy flows between the different storage technologies in a flexible manner. Giorgio Sulligoi of the University of Trieste is the project's coordinator.