Canada’s BC Ferries introduced Dutch shipbuilding conglomerate Damen Shipyards Group has been chosen to construct its 4 new hybrid electrical Island Class vessels.
Damen, the identical shipbuilder that constructed BC Ferries’ earlier six Island Class ferries between 2020 and 2022, will assemble the vessels in Romania, after its bid was chosen from amongst a number of proposals obtained from world wide. No Canadian corporations bid for the construct program, BC Ferries mentioned.
The settlement is a design-build, fixed-priced contract that gives BC Ferries with “substantial” ensures associated to supply dates, efficiency standards, price certainty and high quality development, the corporate added.
Slated to enter service by 2027 on the routes connecting Nanaimo Harbor and Gabriola Island (two vessels) and Campbell River and Quadra Island (two vessels), every of the newbuilds will carry no less than 47 automobiles and as much as 390 passengers and crew.
BC Ferries mentioned it plans to function the brand new vessels completely in battery-electric mode, utilizing renewable BC Hydro electrical energy. Through a separate contract, BC Ferries may even provoke corresponding electrical upgrades for shore-based speedy charging on the 4 terminals on these routes, in time for ship supply.
“The new hybrid electric vessels will further standardize our fleet, both increasing capacity and improving our flexibility to move ships across routes so our passengers can have confidence that we’ll get them where they need to go,” mentioned Nicolas Jimenez, BC Ferries’ President and CEO. “Adding more Island Class vessels will also make it easier to deploy crew, create efficiencies in training costs, and promote safe, reliable and environmentally conscious ferry services up and down the coast.”
“We are super excited and extremely pleased with the award of four more Island Class type vessels for BC Ferries,” mentioned Leo Postma, Damen’s Area Director Americas. “We have teamed up with the technical staff of BC Ferries now for seven years and together we developed a very efficient series of 10 ferries in total that meet all of the future requirements of safe, reliable and sustainable waterborne public transport.”
