Myklebust Verft has signed a contract on building two new ferries featuring battery technology for FosenNamsos Sjø. Choosing Myklebust Verft demonstrates that Norwegian yard industry is competitive in an international market.
The two energy effective car ferries are designed and developed by Multi Maritime and will hold world class technological solutions. The energy consumption is estimated to be less than 30% of the normal consumption of conventional diesel-powered ferries of the same size. The low energy consumption is a result of a newly developed hull shape and propeller solution, the use of highly efficient heat pump technology, a newly developed ventilation solution, led lights, effective batteries with long durability, automatic mooring and more.
The technology to be used is so called plug-in hybrid. This means that the ferries has a battery system installed where a significant amount of the energy consumption comes from fully automatic charging when the ferries are at quay.
“There is a lot of exciting development work within battery technology which gives a more environmentally friendly transport at sea, and we wish to be an important partner in this development,” says Ståle Rasmussen, CEO at Kleven. Kleven has several other vessels with different battery solutions in their order book, among them Hurtigruten’s new polar exploration vessels.
The 106-meter-long ferries are to service the Flakk-Rørvik connection. The newbuildings will be modern, flexible and large ferries with room for 130 passenger cars, and with a top saloon with 360 degrees view. Other features are universal design for easy access, charging point for electric cars as well as a playroom for children.
The ferries will to a great extent be sailing on electrical power from land, but due to the very short turn-around time (four minutes), the charging at quay will not be sufficient to base the operation solely on that. The ferries will therefore be equipped with a battery system which will be charged both from the charging stations on the ferry quay as well as from diesel generators on board. These diesel generators can be run on 100% biodiesel.
Source: klevenmaritime.no / Norway Today