Monday 12 August 2024
San Francisco ferries go electric
Swedish supplier of maritime battery systems Echandia has been selected to supply San Fransisco Bay Ferry's Rapid Electric Emission Free (REEF) programme.
The programme will initially deploy three 150-passenger electric ferries in San Francisco and two 400-passenger electric ferries for the existing routes in Oakland and Alameda.
The first REEF vessel is expected to enter service in 2026, with the initial battery systems scheduled for delivery in the second quarter of 2025.
The batteries will be made in Echandia's production facility in Marysville, Washington State.
This will allow them to meet 'Buy America' provisions which require a certain percentage of a product's components to be manufactured in the US.
Seamus Murphy, Executive Director of San Francisco Bay Ferry, said: 'We’re proud to be working with Echandia to advance the nation’s first high-speed, high-capacity battery electric ferries in the US.
'Among the many benefits of our programme will be the creation of new jobs and the expansion of the US zero-emission maritime industry. By opening this new facility, Echandia is helping us realise those benefits.'
The battery-electric ferries will be the first zero-emission high-speed ferries in America.
