First Battery-electric Work Ship For Fish Set To Sea

The first battery-electric work ship for fish farming was put into operation. The double-hulled ship is around 14 m long and 8 m wide and takes around 50 minutes daily to the fish breeding station located around 12 km away. 100% battery operation is possible on normal working days, around eight hours.

Siemens technology for offshore ships on board

The home port of Elfrida is the Norwegian island of Frøya and has been sailing since February. The work boat is used to transport feed and equipment, to repair or relocate fish tanks, to check anchorages and to carry out inspections. The ship will be equipped with the BlueDrive PlusC electric propulsion system from Siemens, which includes an energy management system, thruster and propeller controls as well as the EcoMain remote monitoring system. Siemens technology was developed in Trondheim, Norway and is based on solutions designed for offshore ships. This ensures that the technology has been tested under the most difficult conditions and has been developed over many years. The electric drive system not only saves fuel, but also operating costs,because an electric motor requires less maintenance than a diesel engine. In addition, working on the Elfrida is more environmentally friendly as the exhaust gases, vibrations and noise caused by the diesel engine are eliminated.

Norway relies on environmentally friendly drive technology

After the "Ampere", the world's first electric ferry in Norway, and an order from the Finnish shipping company FinFerries, a third order for the Norwegian ferry operator Fjord1 followed for Siemens in 2016. The two ferries operated by Fosen Namsos Sjø AS between Flakk and Rorvik on the west coast of Norway are also equipped with Siemens drive technology. Operation is scheduled to start in 2019. It is the first fully electric ferry in the world to use technology developed and manufactured by Siemens.

The use of electric ships is particularly useful in Norway because the country generates its electricity exclusively from renewable sources. Therefore, no greenhouse gases are emitted when generating electricity. The fishing fleet alone, which today consumes around 400 million liters of diesel a year, could reduce its fuel consumption by 80 percent by switching to electric drive. This is a major contribution to the 40 percent reduction in the greenhouse gas CO ₂ to which the Norwegian government has committed.