How A Swedish Company’s Technology Is Powering Electric Ferries

Sitting across the white tablecloth, Magnus Eriksson doesn’t look much like my idea of a prophet in the wilderness, more like a businessman in his smart blazer and chinos. As CEO of Echandia, a Swedish company manufacturing heavy duty energy storage systems for ships, he is at the heart of the transformation of maritime operations away from carbon.

Yet for over a decade, the former naval architect has lobbied local and national authorities relentlessly on the urgent invest in electric and fuel cell solutions for maritime public transport, to be met with all the right sounds but not enough action.

Ultimately, however, he realised that as in the car industry, it is the operators who would drive innovation, although regulation and external pressures are also powerful factors. Shipping has lagged behind in the electric revolution because it’s far more complex to make a ship’s battery safe and effective than it is for automotive transport.

And it seems we may be reaching the tipping point that will make maritime electrification viable. “Until very recently, it’s been more expensive to operate with electric rather these than diesel,” Eriksson says. “But today, we are having a completely different conversation.”

“Before, we had to argue about the case for electric or hydrogen. Now there is cohesive structural change coming from the EU, financial markets requiring companies to look after ESG and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) introducing environmental certification schemes. With any ship operator who needs financing, or ship insurance – it’s the same principle.”

He highlights the EU’s Fit for 55 package of proposals to replace renewable energy targets in the present directive with more ambitious ones, including a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, and climate neutrality by 2050, and a binding target of 40% of energy coming from renewables as part of total national energy mixes by 2030.

The International Maritime Organisation is also expected to improve its own target of cutting greenhouse gases by 50% across global fleets to 100% by 2050. Denmark, the U.S. and other countries have already given their backing. The U.S. navy, adds Eriksson, is going electric.

Nevertheless, he is disappointed in progress to move away from carbon, arguing more needs to be done to reach the targets. Even in Eriksson’s hometown, Stockholm, boasting one of the cleanest public transport systems in the world, waterborne transport is running a long way behind other forms when it comes to emissions-free journeys. There are just three electric ferries in service today, and two more undergoing trials with the transport authority, although Echandia is providing energy storage solutions for two new ferries (see below).

“India is further ahead than Sweden,” observes Eriksson ruefully, “because it’s focused on becoming emission-free, and is moving distinctly towards direct electrification [rather than using hybrid solutions, such as biofuels alongside diesel]. There’s a level of ambition we haven’t seen here, which you can see in the Kochi project today.”

This is the most ambitious maritime electrification project in the world, which will connect Kochi and its 10 islands over 76 km, linking up with the city’s metro system. Eventually there will be 78 fully operational vessels.

After an accident in 2015 in which 11 people died, and a widespread recognition of the need to invest, the city has committed to replacing its single hull passenger craft with catararmarans, each able to carry up to 100 passengers safely. Echandia is providing Siemens with the electric propulsion systems for the first 23 electric ferries and is in early discussions about supplying the remainder.

Nevertheless it’s Europe that is leading the electric maritime revolution, in particular Norway, where boats are no longer permitted to moor up in the city if they are using a diesel engine.

Across the Skaggerak in Copenhagen, Arriva Denmark operates seven green commuter ferries, using Echandia’s lithium-titanic-oxide battery systems. These ferries run 17 hours a day, with each trip taking roughly anhour and carrying up to 80 people.

Knocking on the head one of the biggest constraints for electric vessels - time-consuming charging - each boat can be fully charged in under ten minutes, by using a mooring system that establishes a secure connection between the ship and charging station on shore, thereby felling in one fell swoop one of the major constraints to maritime electrification.

In Europe’s largest port city, Rotterdam, the goal is 100% electric maritime transport by 2030. Here Echandia is working with Damen again, in a Waterbus project for six hybrid and three all-electric ferries which will operate between Sliedrecht, Dordrecht, Rotterdam, and the World Heritage site Kinderdijk. Damen has designed its ferries to minimize wash from wake.

Finally, it seems that electric ferries are finally on their way in Stockholm. In 2021, Echandia won an order to provide a fuel cell energy solution for Green City Ferry’s first Beluga24 ferry. At the end of the year, the company won a second order, this time to provide a specialised battery solution for a second Beluga vessel, working with Toshiba.

A fuel cell energy storage solution refers to the entire system, similar to an electric battery, only using fuel - in this case hydrogen, ammonia in future. The great advantage is that rather than being bound by charging structure, ship operators carry fuel onboard.

A battery energy storage solution essentially stores the energy that’s used by electrical engines or systems using electricity as power, rather like a fuel tank within a combustion engine.

This matters, because one of the biggest issues holding back maritime electrification is the need to store energy. This is where Echandia comes in. “There will be a business case for utilising energy in ports to get round the limitations,” predicts Eriksson, “because the grid is limited. It’s still impossible to get power cables down to facilitate electric ships.”

“The key for all large commercial ships is to carry as much fuel on board as possible. Ships take on far more fuel than they need. The problem is storage.”

Diesel has a relatively high energy density which has enabled ships to carry a lot of fuel on board. With alternative fuels becoming more prevalent, but with lower energy density, operators will need to approach charging differently from refuelling.