Electric Ferries, Assembled on Site Delivered in Italy
Stralsunder Ostseestaal GmbH & Co. KG and its Ampereship business unit delivered two electric solar ferries to Lago d'Iseo near Bergamo in northern Italy as planned. The client was the responsible local authority of the operator Navigazione Lago d'Iseo, and the new vessels are the first fully electric ferries in Italy.
Measuring 25 x 6.6m, the Iseo ferries each have two electric drives with 100 kW output. Electricity is supplied by two battery banks with a total capacity of around 750 kWh. These are charged by shore power and by solar modules during the journey - 75 percent of the roof area of the solar deck is covered with PV modules. The lightweight catamarans for 140 passengers each have been optimized for a speed of 17 km/h, but can reach up to 19 km/h at top speed.
They were built on the Ostseestaal site in Stralsund under the technical management of Ampereship - the business unit of Ostseestaal that specialises in zero-emission ships with the ‘Made in Germany’ seal. Ampereship is integrating its own propulsion, automation and energy management systems into the newbuilds. A unique aspect of the Iseo project is that Ampereship delivered the ships to the site in sections and assembled them on site, eliminating transport problems and the need for a local shipyard. It took around four weeks to assemble each ferry on the shores of Lake Iseo before they were able to set off on test runs and are now already in operation.
The delivery to Lago d'Iseo is already the second to the Alpine region. Previously, Ostseestaal and Ampereship had already delivered three identical electric-solar passenger ships for Lake Zurich, where they are in successful operation. Dirk Zademack, General Manager of Ampereship, is convinced that further orders will follow: ‘The fleet of passenger ships in Europe is very outdated and numerous ships will need to be replaced in the coming years. It therefore makes sense to choose emission-free alternatives whose construction process is also extremely efficient.’
Photos: Ampereship