World’s biggest all-electric ships launching

Two of Sweden’s HH Ferries Group’s massive ferries have been converted from diesel engines to battery.

Close to launching, they will be the world’s biggest all-electric ships.

ABB Marine Systems has been modernising the two ferries, Tycho Brahe and Aurora, using turnkey solutions which includes batteries, an energy storage control system and onboard DC grid technology.

The first automated shore-side charging stations using an ABB industrial robot will be used at both ends of the four-kilometre route between Helsingør (Denmark) and Helsingborg (Sweden).

These will charge the ships’ batteries between unloading and loading. Their combined battery power of 8320kWh equals about 10,700 car batteries.

The battery solution will help lower total emissions across the fleet by more than half from the current four diesel vessels, ABB says.

The ships will carry more than 7.4 million passengers and 1.9 million vehicles annually.
Pre-docking procedures are based on 3D laser scanning and wireless communication, so that a robot (which has its own building when not in use) reaches out during the final 400mm to pull the shore cable from the ship.
The cable reel releases the cable and the robot moves the connectors to the corresponding ones below the robot, before moving back behind its “house” roll-up doors.

Delighted with the modernisation, HH Ferries Group chief executive officer Henrik Rorbaek says it’s about investing responsibly in tomorrow’s technology solutions leading towards a greener future.