Electric Ferries

Electric Ferries Will Soon Float Down the Fjords

These electric ships might be able to mitigate some of the climate damage caused by the shipping industry.

By Avery Thompson

GETTY IMAGESLEONID ANDRONOV

Electric cars are here and seemingly about to break into the mainstream, but what about electric boats? One company in Norway is working to build electric ferries that run entirely on battery power, and the country wants two-thirds of all ferries to be electric by 2030.


Norwegian company Havyard Group ASA is meeting demand for more renewable transportation in the northern European countries. Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands in particular are demanding increased production of electric ferries, and Havyard hopes to fill those orders.

This move is part of a larger trend to electrify the world’s shipping fleet, which contains some 50,000 ships. Norwegian companies have been developing electric cargo ships for the past few years, and these electric ferries are an attempt to bring the technology to another area.

This push to electrify the world’s ships is an attempt to solve a serious problem: Shipping is responsible for a tremendous amount of global emissions. A report by the European Parliament estimates that global shipping could produce 17 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. That’s more than most major countries.

And while most major countries have begun significant efforts to reduce their carbon emissions, shipping has not. There are a handful of electric or renewable ships currently operating, but for the most part the shipping industry is at least as dependent on fossil fuels as it was a decade ago.

Source: Bloomberg