Brittany Ferries Vessel gets World’s Largest Marine Battery

AYK Energy has completed the installation and sea trials for the second Brittany Ferries vessel to feature the biggest marine battery ever built.

AYK installed the 12 megawatt-hours (MWh) Orion+ battery into Brittany Ferries Guillaume de Normandie hybrid electric ferry after installing the same battery system aboard its sister ship Saint-Malo at China Merchants Jinling Shipyard Weihai. The vessel has now completed its sea trials and is heading to Britain, where it will operate the Portsmouth – Caen route. The Saint-Malo ferry, meanwhile, is set to operate the Portsmouth - St Malo route, with the first sailing scheduled this month.

AYK Founder Chris Kruger hailed AYK’s achievement to manufacture and install the two biggest marine batteries ever made at the same time for two ships. “We would again like to thank Brittany Ferries for giving AYK the opportunity to supply these two highly innovative ferries,” he said. “This was a huge job for our company and shows how we are maturing as a business. To win the order in April 2024 and deliver the project by early 2025 shows the capability of our team and factory.”

Kruger is known as one of the founders of marine battery technology, having worked first in the electric car industry before moving to marine.  He developed the battery for the first hybrid propulsion ferry, Princess Benedikte, and the first fully electric ferry, Ampere, in 2012. A native South African now based in Andorra, he established AYK Energy in 2018, building its first factory in 2023 in China to be close to the center of the battery industry supply chain, which he says is 10 years ahead of Europe in China.