Finnish Ferry operator “Finferries” environmental aim is to minimize emissions with technical solutions. As environmental considerations become more important and the technology develops, the  company has decided to initiate a project to electrify a cable ferry.

The development work resulted in Finland’s first cable ferry powered by shore-side electricity. The ferry commenced traffic on the Högsar route in Nagu on 20^th of September in 2018. Since then, the company has begun to serve the reduction of CO² emissions and operated more than 30 cable ferry routes in Finland.

The cable ferry’s batteries receive its energy via a cable directly from the national grid. The electric cable is rolled up automatically on a reel aboard the ferry as the ferry travels and it has a traditional diesel generator onboard to provide reserve power in the event of an electrical outage. The hybrid ferry is 90 meters long, 16 meters wide and has capacity for 90 cars.

As Mats Rosin, CEO of the Finferries says on their website: -It is too early to say what the electric cable ferry’s exact CO² emissions will be, compared with a traditional cable ferry, or for what kinds of ferry routes it will be suitable. That assessment will be made once the ferry has been in operation for a year.

However, they expect a considerably smaller carbon footprint.

This project presented a good example of how companies in a group can cooperate effectively and well: the electric ferry was developed jointly by the Finnish ferry operator and Finnish company “Laivasähkötyö”, that works on – among others - different system’s electrification and was responsible for the whole implementation itself.

Keywords: electric ferry, cable ferry, electrification, cooperation, Finland