Electric boat world firsts (Edition 2)

Here are another half dozen electric boat world firsts to go along with the article we did back in May about landmark achievements. Of course it’s natural to have a series of world firsts in anything developing as quickly as the electrification of marine propulsion, but sometimes it is nice to see them all in one place (or two) and realize just how quickly things are changing.

Ferries, jetskis, workboats, tugboats – everything is going electric at a quickening pace as batteries and motors and hulls and hydrofoiling and charging and every aspect of things gets more efficient, lighter, faster, bigger…and cleaner.

Drumroll please…

Item 1: tugboats

The operations manager for the Ports of Auckland said that when they started looking for a battery-powered tug in 2016, no-one was making them, and shipyards told them they were dreaming. Here’s what happened:

Item 2: High speed (and crazy to drive) jetboats

At the other end of the speed scale in New Zealand, the world famous Shotover Jet canyon river ride is converting a jet motor on one of its boats from fossil fuel V8 to electric.

Item 3: The world’s largest electric ferry, longest e-ferry route (and more)

E-Ferry Ellen has completed its maiden voyage connecting the ports of Søby and Fynshav, on the islands of Ærø and Als in southern Denmark

Electric boat world firsts Item 4: A hydrofoiling jetski!

WaveFlyer is the world’s first stabilized electric jetski using FS (fully submerged) hydrofoils.

Item 5: Another world first from Energy Observer…

The solar/wind/hydrogen ship will be the first to go around the globe with zero emissions, and is setting other world firsts on its mission.

Item 6: …and commercial ships are next

Norwegian cruise line Havlia has contracted with Corvus Energy of Canada to provide the marine world’s largest battery package to help provide zero-emission propulsion in the arctic.

Stay tuned, there are sure to be more world firsts in the next few months!