Seatrade Maritime is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Siemans maps out battery powered future for Danish ferries

Siemans maps out battery powered future for Danish ferries
Siemens Marine & Shipbuilding says that seven out of 10 domestic ferries in Denmark could be more profitable under electrical power.

Siemens, which has the world’s only electrical powered ferry operating in Norway – Ampere – surveyed 42 domestic ferry routes in Denmark operated by 52 vessels.

Some 30 ferry routes were found to be more profitable using a battery operated ferry assuming a newbuilding was deployed.

“This is no longer the future, this is what is happening,” Kim Strate Kiegstad, global accounts manager for Siemens Marine & Shipbuilding told the Danish Maritime Technology Conference in Copenhagen.

He said that the technology is not new and is already operating on the e-ferry in Norway, which was used as the basis of the study.

Keigstad said using electricity would help owners save on operating costs. Based on an additional investment of DKR420m to replace 39 ferries with electric vessels rather than conventional ones, the pay back period would be 5.5 years, with operational savings from there onwards.

From an operational point of view vibration and noise would be reduced, while if all 39 ferries were electric 19,000 tonnes of annual fuel consumption would be reduced to zero. It would also save 35 tonnes of SOx emissions and 930 tonnes of NOx.

There would be major environmental benefits with 45,000 tonnes of CO2 saved a year on routes with profitable electric ferries.

Kiegstad said there were still some issues such as the supply of charging although this could potentially come from expanding the electricity grid locally.

The switch to electric ferries fits Denmark’s goal to have zero reliance on fossil fuels by 2050.