Earlier this month, the world’s largest all-electric ferry went into full operation on the stretch between the two Norwegian cities of Moss and Horten. This is Norway’s busiest ferry route. Read more about the world’s largest electric ferry now operational in Norway.
Norway has had a successful kickstart of electrification of cars, and now the government is focusing on electrifying other forms of transport. In a country with one of the longest coastlines in the world with many fjords, transport by water has been a natural mean of moving people and cargo.
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Bastø Electric, made at Sefine Shipyard in Turkey, is the first of three battery-powered ferries on a route across the Oslo Fjord, a route of some 10.5km (5.67 nautical miles). Bastø Electric measures 139.2 meters in length and is 21 meters wide. Top speed is 13 knots (15 mpr 24 km/h). Every year, 3.8 million passengers and 1.8 million vehicles are transported between Moss and Horten. The ferry can carry either 200 cars or 24 trucks, as well as 600 passengers.
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All three ferries will be made in Turkey. The battery and fast-charging systems for the 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”.
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The building of Bastø Electric has taken 20 months. This is by no means Norway’s first electric ferry, though, just its largest. The first fully-electric ferry to enter active service in Norway was the MF Ampere which debuted in early 2015.
World’s Largest Electric Ferry Now Operational In Norway, written by Tor Kjolberg