Major Ferry Firm Wants to Swap Bunkers for Batteries

The LNG-powered Spirit of British Columbia. Image Credit: BC Ferries

Canada's BC Ferries, one of the world's largest ferry operators, is the latest to announce it will swap traditional bunker fuel for batteries.

The British Columbia-based operator this week issued Requests for Expressions of Interest (RFEOIs) for a total of five new vessels as part of its fleet renewal programme, four of which will be 81-metre "Island Class" ferries that use electric hybrid propulsion.

The fifth ferry will be a 107-metre "Salish Class" vessel powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG).

"These new vessels will help us move toward our ambition to be leaders in the transition to a lower carbon future, and our standardization and interoperability of the fleet. This improves safety, environmental performance and resiliency, and reduces costs," said Mark Wilson, BC Ferries' Vice President of Strategy and Community Engagement.

"These new clean-tech vessels will reduce our carbon emissions, helping the Province achieve its greenhouse gas reduction targets, and have the added benefit of reducing the amount of underwater radiated noise we produce"

The vessels are slated to join the firm's 35 strong fleet in 2020 and 2021.

Having already earmarked LNG as a future fuel for its fleet, BC Ferries' first retrofit to use the alternative fuel returned to service in June. But BC Ferries now joins a growing number of operators who are looking to battery power to reduce their emissions.

Of course a key challenge for electric propulsion is to ensure that is is not just vessel emissions being reduced, but that total lifecycle emissions are reduced by using electricity that has been generated in a clean and environmentally sustainably way.

British Columbia has an advantage in that over 90% of it's electricity is produced using hydroelectric generation.