Wasaline RoPax Aurora Botnia set for world’s largest battery retrofit yet

Image; Wasa Line

Finland’s Wasaline is making a significant step forward on its path to sustainability by expanding the onboard battery capacity of its 150-meter RoPax ferry Aurora Botnia with an additional 10.4 MWh of battery capacity, to be delivered this fall. The batteries, which will be in operation in January 2026, will be supplied by Andorra-based marine battery specialist AYK Energy.

Built in 2021 by Rauma Marine Constructions, the Aurora Botnia presently operates on dual-fuel LNG/biomass engines and 2.2 MWh batteries. The upgrade to a battery system nearly five times more powerful is expected to slash fossil energy use by around 10,000 MWh annually, cutting emissions by nearly a quarter each year.

“This is the largest battery retrofit on a vessel to date, and we are extremely proud to be partnering with Wasaline as the provider of this advanced battery solution. Being recognized once again as a reliable and cost-effective supplier is extremely gratifying”, says Chris Kruger, founder and president at AYK Energy. “This project exemplifies AYK’s vision of bringing high quality, safe and cost-effective solutions to address our customers requirements for environmentally friendly transport. The transition to electric and hybrid vessels is accelerating, and the AYK/Wasaline partnership is an excellent example of how working together strategically can make the change happen.”

“We are continuously working to establish the Vaasa–Umeå route as a green shipping corridor,” Peter Ståhlberg, managing director of Wasaline. “There’s growing demand for environmentally friendly transport, and intermodal cargo transportation from Europe is increasing yearly. This means the entire transport chain can be carbon-neutral today. Expanding our battery capacity is a major step that allows us to make our vessel even more sustainable and allocate more capacity to batteries and biogas. Our collaboration with Finland’s and the region’s energy clusters makes innovative solutions like this possible and we are proud to be a forerunner in the industry.”d hybrid vessels is accelerating, and the AYK/Wasaline partnership is an excellent example of how working together strategically can make the change happen.”

Kruger added that the AYK system is scheduled to be delivered and installed on Aurora Botnia by the end of 2025 at the Turku Repair Yard in Finland enabling the Aurora Botnia to be operational again by January 2026. He said the batteries are lithium iron phosphate (LFP) known for their safety and long lifespan compared to the more volatile nickel manganese Cobalt (NMC) batteries.

“AYK’s battery systems are built around safety,” he said. “We are one of the few manufacturers to exclusively use LFP and have developed a system where the LFP chemistry is safer and has comparable energy density to NMC.”

The AYK battery systems will be built at AYK’s 5000 square meter automated manufacturing plant in in Zhuhai China which opened in 2023. The plant has a production capacity of 300 MWh a year with the ability to expand to 1GWh.

AYK this year successfully installed the biggest marine battery systems ever built, two 12 megawatt-hour (MWh) Orion+ batteries for Brittany Ferries hybrid electric vessels the Guillaume de Normandie and its sister ship Saint-Malo. The vessels were built at China Merchants Jinling Shipyard Weihai. AYK also struck a deal this year to supply a 6 MWh battery for the world’s first battery-methanol tug on order for Svitzer at the Uzmar shipyard in Turkey.

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