Batteries powering the future of passenger ships

The latest issue of Passenger Ship Technology highlights this. In our flagship feature, Incat founder and chief executive Robert Clifford says of the world’s largest battery ship his shipyard is building, “This ferry is going to be huge for the industry, no doubt about that.” Constructed for South American ferry operator Buquebus, Hull 096 is the most significant vessel ever built by Incat. When it enters service between Buenos Aires and Uruguay, it will operate entirely on battery-electric power, carrying up to 2,100 passengers and 225 vehicles across the River Plate.

There’s no doubt this Buquebus ferry is blazing a path and opening the door for other projects. Indeed, hot on the heels of this ferry’s launch in May this year, Incat revealed it had scooped another impressive battery-powered ferry order – Nordic Ferry Infrastructure, Molslinjen’s owners, has placed a US$157M order for two battery-powered catamarans for use on ferry routes across the Kattegat, with ship operator Molslingjen saying a third ferry order is "in the works". 

"If it ends up with three ferries, the Kattegat route will become the world’s largest electrification project at sea ever. The first of the three ferries is expected to arrive in Danish waters 2027-2028," Moslinjen says.

Our other flagship ferry newbuild feature focuses on Scandlines’ Futura ferry, a hybrid battery-powered ferry being built at Cemre’s shipyard. With the world’s largest lithium-ion battery bank to date at 10 MWh, the ferry is designed to be operated completely emissions free.  When deployed on the Fehmarnbelt later this year, the ferry will sail emissions free with a crossing time of 70 minutes and a charging time in the port of Rødbyhavn, Denmark, of just 16 minutes. 

But it is not just the newbuild side of things that is undergoing a heavy focus on battery power. Things are hotting up in the retrofit sector. Wasaline is undertaking the largest battery retrofit project to date on its hybrid electric ropax ferry Aurora Botnia. The project will see the marine battery specialist AYK Energy install a 10.4-MWh battery on Aurora Botnia, which operates a daily service between Finland and Sweden. Built in 2021, Aurora Botnia presently operates on dual-fuel engines and 2.2-MWh batteries. The upgrade – to a combined battery system nearly six times more powerful – is expected to slash fossil energy use by around 10,000 MWh annually, cutting emissions by nearly a quarter each year. Indeed, a study carried out by Wasaline found emissions would be cut by 23% by retrofitting larger batteries, reducing fossil energy use.

And finally, batteries are infiltrating the cruise sector more rapidly, with the news Chilean tour operator Antarctica21’s Magellan Discoverer, currently being built by shipyard Asenav, will be the first hybrid-electric polar expedition cruise ship to be built in South America.