By
David Mott |
In a world where most new ferries are now being driven by one form of gas or another, Norwegian owner Norled, in conjunction with the Fjellstrand shipyard and Siemens, has taken this process one stage further with what it says is the world’s first all-electric ship. The NK150 million vessel, which can take 360 passengers and 120 cars, was developed from a competition set up by the Norwegian government to find the most economic method of sea transport for the future.
The catamaran’s key feature is that its batteries can be recharged in just 10 minutes. The vessel it will replace across Sognefjord from 2015 onwards uses 1 million litres of diesel a year and emits 570 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Norled’s prize is an operational licence until 2025. Given the hundreds of ferries operating to islands within 30 minutes of Norway’s west coast, the potential for electric ships is enormous. Plans are also on the drawing board for an emission-free ferry run on renewable power to operate between Denmark, Germany and Sweden in the next five years. This much larger vessel would take 1,500 passengers with 1.3 miles of parking space for cars.
The Norwegian owner is also building two LNG ships at Remontowa shipyard in Poland. Each can take 550 passengers and 165 cars and they will replace three smaller 110-car capacity vessels.
A similar sized ferry with capacity for 700 passengers and 143 cars has been ordered by state-owned Caledonian MacBrayne, the Scottish Western Isles specialist. The vessel will be launched in February 2014 for service in the summer between Stornoway and Ullapool. She will be called Loch Seaforth after that name got 40 per cent of the votes in a competition organised by the company.
P&O Ferries is spending £20 million upgrading the facilities of its Dover Strait and Irish Sea ferries to the standard of its newest ferries, Spirit of Britain and Spirit of France. DFDS Seaways, now a competitor on the Channel, plans to spend DK120 million in 2014 on upgrading Pearl Seaways and Crown Seaways, which between them carry 700,000 passengers a year between Copenhagen and Oslo. Company spokesperson Gert Jakobsen says negotiations with a number of yards are at a delicate stage but that a contract should be announced soon.
The consideration at Stena Line is the viability of methanol as a means of propulsion. Trials have been held on the Gothenburg-Frederikshavn train ferry, Stena Scanrail, and subject to good results, the Stena Germanica will be converted in the first half of next year. CEO, Dan Sten Olsson, says he has plans to adapt 25 ferries to methanol by 2018. He says the tighter emissions rules will cost Stena half a billion kroner by 2015.
Scandlines, the German/Danish group, has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with STX Finland for two 1,300-passenger LNG ferries to replace the slightly larger Berlin and Copenhagen whose contract was cancelled because the now-bankrupt P&S Werft shipyard in Germany could not complete the contract. The LOI is significant because, if confirmed, it would give 1,000 man-years of work to one of the three STX Europe shipyards put up for sale by their beleaguered South Korean parent. The cancelled contract was worth €230 million and the new one is likely to be very similar in value.
This article appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2013 edition of International Cruise & Ferry Review. To read the full article, you can subscribe to the magazine in printed or digital formats.