BC Ferries Launches More Battery & LNG-Powered Vessels

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Monday December 28, 2020

Canadian ferry firm BC Ferries has launched two more newbuild ferries powered by non-traditional bunker fuel.

The first is its fourth electric-hybrid Island Class ferry that earlier this month was launched at Damen Shipyards Galati in Romania where it is under construction.

Subject to successful sea trials, the yet-to-be named vessel is due to arrive on Canada's West Coast in late 2021 and enter service in 2022.

The second vessel is BC Ferries' fourth LNG-powered Salish Class vessel, with the firm last week saying it entered the water at Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A. in Gdansk, Poland.

Work is set to continue there until scheduled sea trials in late 2021 and is schedule to enter service in British Columbia in early 2022.

If nothing else, the announcements highlight that talk of swapping bunkers for batteries and other alternatives is way past the point of just talk, and particularly so in the ferry sector where fixed, shorter routes and smaller vessels are commonplace.