The world’s first fully electric fast ferry returned to its home Stavanger from Fjellstrand a Norwegian shipyard.
Whilst the traditional fast ferries running on fossil fuels are known for being highly polluting, Medstraum will vastly improve the carbon footprint of the ferry line in Norway.
Medstraum for which the construction began in June, has two electric motors and a .5MWh capacity battery with charging power of more than 2MW making it the world’s first fully electric zero emission fast ferry and is in accordance with the International Code of Safety for High-Speed Crafts (HSC Code) according to the builder TrAM initiative.
Medstraum will be operated by a public transport company has a cruising speed of 23 knots and a maximum speed pf 27 knots. It will be carrying passengers between Stavanger, Byøyene, and Hommersåk from late summer 2022.
‘We are very happy to finally get this flagship delivered. Kolumbus aims to be at the forefront of adopting new and environmentally technology,’ said Mikal Dahle, Project Manager at Kolumbus. ‘Medstraum will cut our emissions by 1500 tonnes a year, despite operating on our least energy-demanding route. That’s the equivalent of 60 buses.’ Mike further added.
Hege Økland, CEO of Maritime CleanTech, also commented: ‘Medstraum is already stirring great interest internationally. The maritime industry across the world is now looking at what we achieve in our maritime cluster. This could really be the start of a new adventure for our industry. Not only have the project partners developed and demonstrated a new and emission-free propulsion system that can maintain higher speeds than before, we have also adopted completely new modular design- and construction methods that will revolutionise the way we build boats in the future.’
Medstraum, the world’s first fully electric fast ferry is built 7 years after the world’s first fully electric ferry, Ampere was built at the Fjellstrand shipyard in Hardanger Norway and there are more than 70 emission free ferries in operation in Norway which without a doubt is an inspiration for other countries.
