The first of four “battery rooms” is being energised aboard what is currently the world’s largest electric ferry, the Hull 096 in Tasmania.
Shipbuilder Incat Tasmania says it’s sending power into one of the huge battery rooms which house a share of the 5,016 battery units that will drive the vessel when it starts ocean trials for the power system later this year.
Hul 096 has a 40 megawatt hour (MWh), 250 tonne battery and at 78 metres long is not the largest electric ferry under construction – that honour goes to a Turkish build – but it has a bigger battery and can travel at up to 27 knots with a maximum of 2100 passengers and 225 cars.
“To stand inside one of these battery rooms really brings home the scale of what’s being achieved here,” Incat CEO Stephen Casey said in a statement.
“This vessel represents a step change for the global ferry industry – proof that large-scale, sustainable vessels are not only possible, but practical and commercially viable.”
The energy storage system (ESS) is connected to eight electric driven waterjets that are being supplied by Finnish energy tech giant Wärtsilä, and was officially put into the water on the River Derwent in May.
Incat Tasmania operates out of Australia’s largest commercial shipyard in Hobart, one of the few globally capable of producing large aluminium vessels for the international market, and one which allows the company to rely on 100 per cent renewable energy.
The Hull 096 ferry is being built for South American ferry operator Buquebus and was originally intended to be an LNG-powered vessel, until COVID19 shutdowns gave Incat time to tinker and come up with a more innovative proposal.
Buquebus is in the unique position of controlling its ferry terminals in Argentina and Uruguay, so it can build charging infrastructure on site at the scale it will need to power the mega-batteries.
Construction is currently underway on a vessel currently dubbed “Hull 100”, a 78-metre next-generation hybrid ferry.
Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.