Go electric
or go home
By Cindy Chan
B
C Ferries is working towards a clean future with the announcement of four more battery electric-hybrid Island Class vessels.
fleet and be a leader in the energy transition to a lower
The company has awarded Damen Shipyards Group of the Netherlands the contracts to build the vessels that are
Norway, whose transportation network is closer to
scheduled to go into service in 2022. In 2017, Damen built two first-in-class of these types of vessels that have successfully completed sea trials, which arrived in Victoria, B.C. in January 2020. According to Captain Jamie Marshall, who is also BC Ferries’ vice-president of business development and innovation, the four vessels are part of the company’s Clean Futures Plan, which aims to reduce greenhouse
carbon future,” Marshall said in a release. Marshall says BC Ferries is inspired by countries like carbon-neutral. “We want to move towards lower route emissions across our fleet with the vision and goal of becoming carbon-neutral over the next several decades,” Marshall says. The four battery electric-hybrid vessels will be identical to the two that arrived in January. They are 47-car ferries, each with a capacity for 300 to 450 passengers. They will operate some of BC Ferries’ interisland routes.
gas (GHG) emissions by replacing carbon-intensive, fossil-fuelled vessels with ships that use clean energy.
“They’re all ready for electric operation. That means
“These next four Island Class ships are a major step in
they’ll be fully electrical zero-emission vessels,” Marshall
our plan to progressively lower emissions across the
says.
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B.C. Tugboat 2020
when the shore infrastructure and funding is available,
