Electrification: Leading the “charge”

An artist’s rendering of the new plug-in hybrid electric vessel being designed by New-Zealand-based EV Maritime for the Angel Island-Tiburon Ferry (AITF) fleet. (Credit: EV Maritime)

By Michael D. White

The clock is ticking down as the maritime industry is racing to implement innovative technologies to meet the net-zero emissions by 2050 set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2023.

To meet the challenge, electrification is being folded into the mix as a doable ‘green’ solution and vessel operators and designers along the West Coast from Alaska to California are leading the effort to develop and implement the latest developments in the field to reduce emissions.

In 2001, the Alaskan Port of Juneau became the first port in the US to offer shore power for a cruise ship, and, three years later, the Port of Los Angeles opened the world’s first container terminal utilizing shore-suppled electrical power for container ships.

Three years ago, the Port of Hueneme—the only deep-water port between the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex and the San Francisco Bay area—received $10.4 million in regional funding to help build shoreside power plug-in infrastructure at its North Terminal Ro-Ro facility. In 2014, the Port’s all-electric shoreside power systems went online at the South Terminal where container ships plug in to use the clean grid power.

Some more recent examples…

SAN DIEGO—The nation’s first all-electric tugboat—the 82-foot eWolf—is on-duty at the Port of San Diego escorting ships entering and leaving the port’s Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal using electric power instead of diesel fuel.

Operated by Crowley Maritime Corp., the tug is powered by a 6.2 megawatt-hour main propulsion battery and two electric drives that push the vessel at speeds of up to twelve knots. The tug has a bollard pull of 76.8 short tons, which is more powerful than the diesel-powered counterparts at the port.

eWolf features a pair of 2,100-kW, 2,816-hp Ramme electric motors drawing electricity from battery banks installed below deck that are charged from a shoreside plug-in charging system that is part of a microgrid facility equipped with a pair of 40-foot energy storage containers. Battery modules in each container have storage capacity of 1.5 megawatt-hours. The eWolf will plug into its own partly solar-powered microgrid rather than sucking power off the local community’s grid.

The Port of San Diego installed its first shore power connection at its cruise terminals in 2010, making it among the first ports in the country to have shore power available for cruise ships.

The Port recently commissioned a $4.6 million project to install a second power hook-up at its B Street Cruise Terminal. The new connection “provide more flexibility to a wide variety of vessels that have either port- or starboard-side shore power connection points,” the Port said. Installation of the new connection is slated for completion in early 2025.

SEATTLE—The Port of Seattle is installing a third shore power system at Pier 66, making it the world’s first port with three ‘hook-ups’ for visiting cruise ships. The development is significant as the Port is the busiest cruise ship port on the West Coast with more than 200 vessels in a typical season between April and October.

The project involves laying submarine cable on the seabed alongside the port’s shoreline that will supply the dockside power system at the Pier 66 cruise terminal with renewable energy provided by Seattle City Light, the local municipal power company. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA—In May, a pair of 100% electric, zero-emission tugboats have begun handling vessels calling the bulk cargo facilities at the Port of Vancouver, B.C.’s Neptune Terminals.

The charging station at Neptune Terminals has been upgraded to generate three megawatts of power to accommodate both tugs at the same time.

The tugs have a four-hour run time on battery power, which allows them to work in tandem during the two active periods for tugboats: slack tides at low and high water.

Operated by SAAM Towage, the tugs were and built in Turkey and designed by Vancouver-based naval architect Robert Allan Ltd. for deployment in inner harbors like those around Vancouver. Within the next few years, there will be at least five electric tugs operating in B.C. waters, including three used by HaiSea Marine at LNG Canada’s new export facility in Kitimat.

In July, the steel was recently cut at Damen Shipyards Group’s shipyard in Romania on the first two of four, fully electric Island Class Ferries the company is constructing for Victoria, B.C.-headquartered BC Ferries. The ferries will be the first fully electric vessels to operate in the company’s fleet.

Operating with battery packs with the capacity to supply the power train with 2,000 kW-hour of electricity, the vessels will carry up to 47 vehicles and 390 passengers. Damen will also supply the charging tower system for the new ferries, which will recharge while passengers are both embarking coming aboard and leaving the vessels.

WASHINGTON STATE—Washington State Ferries (WSF) operates the largest ferry system in the U.S. and the second-largest vehicular ferry system in the world behind neighboring BC Ferries. The state ferries carried an average of 51,700 passengers per weekday in the second quarter of 2024.

“Our System Electrification Plan calls for the conversion of six existing vessels to hybrid-electric power and to build 16 new hybrid-electric vessels,” says Matt von Ruden, Administrator for the WSF System Electrification Program.

To watch Matt von Ruden and others involved with the WSF ferry electrification project, click here.

“In August 2023, we awarded a contract to Vigor Marine for the conversion of up to three Jumbo Mark IIs, with work on the Wenatchee [a Jumbo Mark-II-class ferry launched in 1998] underway now. We’re currently seeking shipbuilders nationwide to build five new vessels by 2030.”

According to von Ruden, there are several “unique conditions” at WSF terminals under consideration for electrification.

“First, due to the size of our vessels, our ferries require higher amounts of power than many other vessels that have been electrified to date,” he says. “Secondly, the Puget Sound tidal range is much greater than comparable vessels in Europe and elsewhere in the United States, and our charging system needs to accommodate for those tide variances. Third, since we will install charging infrastructure at 16 different terminals, we’re working now to have standardized vessel charging that will support several vessel classes.”  

The goal of the System Electrification Plan, says von Ruden, “is to have a hybrid-electric fleet by 2040. When shore power is available at all 16 terminals, we will operate nearly emissions-free. As we develop our shoreside infrastructure, hybrid-electric power is our best option for system reliability.”

Hybrid technology,” he says, “provides an unparalleled opportunity for resiliency over a singular system approach. Beyond 2040, we would consider a battery-only vessel once our terminal electrification projects are completed.”

SAN FRANCISCO BAY—In June 2024, Golden Gate Ferry (GGF) has announced plans to build a fleet of eight new hybrid vessels to improve operational efficiency and reduce emissions from its San Francisco Bay Area commuter ferry service.

Work on the new Liwa Class newbuild program will begin in early 2025 to retire and replace Golden Gate Ferry’s existing fleet of with a series of eight new 165-foot, 500-passenger catamarans by 2033.

GGF runs four passenger ferry routes plus special event services connecting Marin County with the City and County of San Francisco.

The Angel Island Tiburon Ferry (AITF) has commissioned New-Zealand-based EV Maritime to design a plug-in hybrid electric vessel for its fleet. The project, which will also see the electrification of two existing AITF vessels.

EV Maritime will design and engineer the hybrid ferry with electrical integration provided by local San Rafael-based ZeroMar. The new ferry is scheduled to launch in January 2027, while the AITF’s other two ferries will be converted to electric power with that work is slated for completion by late next year or early 2026.

San Francisco’s Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) is seeking bids from U.S. shipyards to construct a new seven-vessel fleet of zero-emission, high-speed, battery electric ferries.

The newbuilds will be ordered as part of SF Bay Ferry’s Rapid Electric Emission Free (REEF) Ferry Program and include two 400-passenger and three 150-passenger ferries.

The Elliott Bay Design Group, based in Seattle, was selected as the design and construction management firm for the larger vessels, while San Diego-based Aurora Marine Design (AMD) has designed the smaller vessels and is also consulting on the overall zero-emission system architecture.

In late 2023, WETA tapped Finnish technology group Wärtsilä as electrification systems integrator for the REEF Ferry Program, while Sweden-based Echandia was tapped to provide marine battery systems from its new manufacturing facility in Marysville, Wash.