Swedish HH Ferries has announced Scandlines' ‘Aurora’ and ‘Tycho Brake’ as the world’s largest battery powered ferries on the routes between Helsingborg, Sweden and Helsingør, Denmark.

The inauguration, held on the 9th November, marked a milestone in HH Ferries green energy strategy. The project will reduce the company's total emissions of CO2, NOx and particles by 65%. Sweden has a long-term climate goal of achieving net greenhouse gases by 2045, HH Ferries is hoping to reach this much sooner.

The project has taken more than three years, costing around SEK 300m (around £25.4m) and is the company’s single largest investment ever. INEA, the EU’s executive agency for Innovation and Network has supported the project with around SEK 120m. 

The route transports up to 50,000 passengers and 9,000 cars across Øresund on a daily basis.

When the boats arrive in the port, automatic land-based charging stations connect to the ferry and maximise the charging period to enable efficient charging of each vessel’s 640 batteries of 6.5kWh each. The batteries are located on top of the ferries along with two deckhouses for transformers, converters and coding systems. The actual electricity provided will also be green and carbon neutral, coming from water, wind and solar energy which will help to completely eradicate any emissions from the project. Each vessel is expected to require a nine minute charge for the twenty minute crossing. When the ferry arrives in the port, a fully automatic laser-guided arm connects the batteries to the power source. The robotic arms are held in towers more than 10 meters high, which provides them with adequate shelter from the often windy conditions of the port.

"We only have one planet and one of the things that we, as a shipping company, can do to contribute to a more sustainable world is to actively safeguard the marine environment," 

says Johan Röstin, CEO at HH Ferries Group.

"We have always cared for the environment and were living up to the most recent emission regulations back in 2007. With battery-driven ferries we are taking a big step forward for less emissions, smoke and noise. And we will not compromise on efficiency. Thanks to groundbreaking technology and talented co-workers the crossing will only take 20 minutes."