The award winning Norwegian tourist boat owner The Fjords is to build a third emission free vessel.
Owned jointly by Norwegian ferry company Fjord 1 and the tourist group Flåm, The Fjords won many accolades for its first two emission free electric vessels, Vision of The Fjords and Future of The Fjords which operate in the West Norway fjords sailing between Flåm and Gudvangen, a UNESCO heritage area.
The third vessel, to be called Legacy of The Fjords, is currently under construction at Norwegian Yard Brødrene Aa. It will be of the same distinctive catamaran design as the previous two and will operate in Oslo, the capital of Norway in the south of the country from July 2019.
“This is a move that will surprise some in the industry, but one we see as a natural progression for this ambitious business,” states The Fjords CEO Rolf Sandvik. “Oslo is very different from Flåm, but we believe it should demand the same degree of operational responsibility and environmental care – especially seeing as it is EU Green Capital of the Year 2019. We want to set new standards for the urban environment, as we have done for the natural one, and the silent running, highly efficient, zero emission Legacy of The Fjords will allow us to do so.”
In a company press statement, The Fjords said the vessel will employ a specially constructed dock that has an inbuilt battery storage system and waste water collection arrangement. The battery will charge up from the land power grid when the vessel is not alongside and be used to recharge the vessel’s own batteries when the vessel is alongside. An existing dock for the Future of The Fjords means the vessel can fully charge irs 2.4MWh battery capacity in 20 minutes.
Westcon will provide the battery solution for Legacy of The Fjords.
