Brittany Ferries to launch hybrid ferry in the English Channel
Brittany Ferries is talking about the largest battery ever installed in a ship worldwide. The ferry can also run purely on electricity, but it is primarily designed to run on LNG as fuel. The sole battery operation is primarily intended for entering and leaving the harbours. The vessel was built at the CMI Jinling shipyard in Weihai, China. The engine on board comes from Wärtsilä, while the 12 MWh battery is housed in four battery compartments, which were installed on the ferry by AYK Energy, a company based in Europe and China.
During test runs, the ferry demonstrated that it can maintain a speed of 14 knots on battery power alone. In future, the ferry’s batteries will be charged externally via a charger in the harbour. A charging system with a charging capacity of up to 8 MW is to be installed in Portsmouth for this purpose.
The Saint-Malo is 195 metres long and 28 metres wide and can carry up to 1,290 passengers. Christophe Mathieu, CEO of Brittany Ferries, recently described it as the fourth new ship in the fleet and part of the largest renewal project in the 52-year history of his company: “This vessel and sister-ship Guillaume de Normandie are significant steps on our journey to a more sustainable future. Cleaner and greener is one thing, but these new hybrids will also be love letters to the regions they serve.”
The Guillaume de Normandie is also set to become a hybrid ship – and will be fitted with a battery from AYK Energy. According to AYK Managing Director Chris Kruger, however, purely electric ships of this size that use electricity as their sole energy source are also feasible in the future.
At the beginning of 2023, the initiators described the two hybrid ferries as ‘the largest hybrid ships in the world’ and part of a larger ‘E-Flexer’ family commissioned in China. Many players are involved in the project, such as the Swedish shipping company Stena Line, which formally purchases the vessels and then passes them on to Brittany Ferries on a long-term basis via a charter contract with a purchase option. Leclanché was also initially named as a battery supplier. It is not clear from the accompanying communication from AYK whether the battery technology now used is the result of a cooperation between Leclanché and AYK Energy, or whether AYK Energy has replaced the Swiss company as supplier in the course of the ship’s construction.
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