Damen lands electric ferry contract for Canada

Damen Shipyards has won a contract to build four fully electric passenger car ferries for BC Ferries of British Columbia. The ships will be deployed from 2027 on short-range services with two vessels each on routes connecting Nanaimo Harbour and Gabriola Island, and Campbell River and Quadra Island.

The ferries will be based on the shipbuilder’s double-ended Island-class RoRo 8117 E3 design. Capable of carrying up to 47 vehicles and 390 passengers, the ships will have two-megawatt battery packs supplying electricity to the power trains. The ships will also have auxiliary diesel engines to provide back-up and general redundancy, Damen said. The company will also provide the shoreside equipment enabling the ferries to recharge batteries with renewable electricity at each end of their voyages.

The latest Canadian deal follows three other similar projects. One involved two hybrid ferries for the Ministry of Transportation in Ontario, and the others in volved ships in Copenhagen and Dordrecht.

Nicolas Jimenez, president and CEO of BC Ferries, commented: “The new hybrid electric vessels will further standardise our fleet, both increasing capacity and improving our flexibility to move ships across routes so our passengers can have confidence that we’ll get them where they need to go. Adding more Island-Class vessels will also make it easier to deploy crew, create efficiencies in training costs, and promote safe, reliable and environmentally conscious ferry services up and down the coast.”

Damen’s area director Americas, Leo Postma, said: “We are very excited and extremely pleased with the award of an order of four more Island-Class type vessels for BC Ferries. We have been working alongside the technical staff at BC Ferries for seven years now and together we have developed a series totalling ten ferries that are highly efficient; meeting all the future requirements of safe, reliable and sustainable waterborne public transport.”