World’s largest electric ferry launches in Norway

The world’s largest all-electric ferry yet has gone into service in Norway on a route across the Oslo Fjord. Bastø Electric is the first of three battery-powered ferries operated by the shipping company Bastø Fosen to enter Norwegian waters with more in the making in Turkey.

The Bastø Electric is 139.2-metre-long and 21-metre-wide and was built by the Turkish Sefine Shipyard and has room for 600 passengers and 200 cars or 24 trucks. The battery and fast-charging systems for all three ferries are supplied by Siemens Energy from the battery factory in Trondheim. Bastø Electric uses batteries with a capacity of 4.3 MWh. The fast-charging system has a capacity of 9 MW, according to the shipping company. When docking, the ferry is always “charged at lightning speed”.

The approximately ten-kilometre-long ferry route between Moss and Horten is Norway’s busiest ferry connection, according to Bastø Fosen. Annually, 3.8 million passengers and 1.8 million vehicles are transported on this route. “During 2022, emissions on this ferry route will be reduced by 75 per cent,” the shipping company says. Two other ferries are also to be converted from diesel to electric operation shortly. According to the company, each ferry docks and departs 20 to 24 times a day. The crossing takes around 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, the fast charging system for the ferry is not yet fully operational. Currently, the new electric ferry can only be charged in Horten. The charging connection in Moss is already under construction and will go into operation in the summer. Until then, the ferry will be operating in hybrid mode.

insideevs.combasto-fosen.no (in Norwegian)

3 Comments

about „World’s largest electric ferry launches in Norway“
John Smith
07.03.2021 um 21:45
As a newcomer to your site, I must congratulate Norwegian enterprise on getting so far with decarbonising marine transport using electrical storage. I would like to ask if your members would be attracted to the idea of not having to recharge batteries at a terminus. The Pelamis wave power electrical generator has been commercially demonstrated in Portugal and Scotland, and delivers power at the 1Mw level which I guess is an appropriate and useful level for marine propulsion. The wave energy is of course free, except for the maintenance element. See pelamiswave.com
Michael Lucarelli
05.09.2022 um 16:09
Interested in electric ferry service in USA on the Great Lakes. I have the location on Lake Erie right off Interstate 75. I have been working on this ferry plan for over 12 years. Electric would be ideal. Please advise if you can help in this endeavor. Thank you Mike
Bjørnar Huse
21.12.2022 um 07:55
Michael, there's around 70 ferries running all electric now. This has become the new normal, the only reason diesel ferries are still built is because of lack of electric infrastructure on remote locations and requirement for redundancy for very exposed link. Check out designs from Multi Maritime, HAV and LMG for starters.

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