Rederi AB Gotland's subsidiary Gotland Tech Development, Helios Nordic Energy, METS Technology and ABB have received financial support to investigate the electrification of Destination Gotland's ferries.

The funds, SEK1.2m (€120k) granted through the Swedish Energy Agency's Energy Pilot Gotland programme, will be used for studying the feasibility of replacing the ships' generators with batteries to provide electricity for onboard use by passengers, including charging e-vehicles.

The project aims at reducing the carbon footprint of the ferries that link Gotland with the Swedish mainland by 10%.

The vessels' power banks will be recharged during port calls from Helios Nordic Energy's solar farms. The company's Project Manager Magnus Rahm commented, "Electrifying large fast ships is a great challenge in itself due to the very large capacity requirements. But in this case, we are also dealing with the heavily constrained grid on Gotland. We're now putting all hands on deck to assist Gotland Tech Development to see how our utility-scale solar parks and batteries combined can loosen the biggest knots on the transmission lines and contribute in the best way possible."

Christer Bruzelius, Project Manager, Gotland Tech Development, underlined, "An important step towards both fossil- and emission-free maritime transport is to start electrifying parts of the existing ferries' energy systems."

Photo: Destination Gotland