Innovative All-Electric Fast Ferry Zero-Emissions Marine Transportation

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Introduction

The AIM Electric Fast Foil Ferry project is a zero-emissions marine transportation planning effort in development in the Washington State Puget Sound region. This project is intended to advance a robust, replicable business model for an extremely efficient high-speed and low-emission electric hydrofoil passenger ferry, using lightweight carbon fiber hull construction. The Joint Innovation Project (JIP) Team has acquired a total of $372,910 in federal grant funding through the FTA AIM grant and has committed to match that with $239,000 in additional cash and in-kind local funds, for a total of $611,910.

The vision is to relaunch the “Mosquito Fleet” in the Puget Sound region to increase mobility options while reducing emissions and vehicle traffic. Users of the ferry will be commuters, day travelers, and tourists who demand fast, efficient, and affordable transit between areas separated by water. Joint Innovation Partners on the grant effort are Kitsap Transit, the Port of Bellingham, the Port of Skagit, the Port of Anacortes, Washington Maritime Blue, Foil Ferry LLC (Glosten and Bieker Boats), DNV, and Tacoma Power.

The project team evaluated over 50 potential routes in the Puget Sound region. Three rounds of evaluation and down-selection were conducted to determine the best route for concept design. Factors included passenger demand, existing infrastructure (physical piers and electrical power), as well as established ferry operational infrastructure.

The maps above show the initial down-selection to about 10 routes, all of which had one terminus in Seattle except for the Bellingham-Friday Harbor route. The final route selected for preliminary design was the Bremerton-Seattle route, with Bellingham-Friday Harbor coming in second. The ferry will be designed to only require charging on one side of the route, with a range of 30 nautical miles (nm) or about 35 miles. This range will allow it to operate at all of the routes shown above. The Bellingham-Friday Harbor route and the Tacoma-Seattle route would require charging on both ends.

Shoreside Infrastructure Impacts Vessel Design

Shoreside charging infrastructure is a major milestone in vessel design. Once the route was selected, it was necessary to decide whether the vessel should be designed to charge on one side or on both sides of the route (at each docking location). This decision would have major impacts on the design, operation, and feasibility of near-term deployment of the ferry.

On the one hand, charging the ferry on both sides would allow for a smaller overall battery requirement on the vessel, making the vessel lighter, less expensive, and even more efficient. It would also mean half the charging time (14 minutes on each side instead of 28 minutes on one side), which would allow the existing ferry schedule to be least impacted by the new design. On the other hand, getting shoreside infrastructure installed on both sides has its own significant challenges. On the Seattle side, there is limited dock space and limited high ground for infrastructure installation. Overcoming these obstacles requires significant effort, would likely delay the feasible schedule by several years, and could jeopardize the entire feasibility of the project. 

Another advantage of designing for round-trip operation (charging on one side only) is that the design would then be capable of the range required to operate in any of the routes investigated in Puget Sound. With a range of 30 nm, the vessel would be more robust to application in routes around the country. In the future we may be able to charge at both ends of the route.

Transportation electrification projects face a chicken and egg problem. They require both the vessel and the charging infrastructure. Opportunities may exist to proceed with one component but not the other. Early adoption of such technologies may require some compromise to mitigate schedule risks that are out of the control of the project team. These risks should be identified as early as possible to find the best possible compromise.

Meetings between the design team and the route operator were critical to understanding the best path forward. The design team developed estimates for differences in efficiency and charging times for the one-way and round-trip charging time scenarios. Leveraging these estimates and the route operators’ knowledge of potential shoreside infrastructure construction timelines, consensus was achieved on the best path forward.

It was decided to design the vessel to have the range to perform a round-trip, such that it only needs to be charged on one side. This has a number of added benefits: the same design can be used on more routes; if power is lost on one end, the vessel will have the range to return to its home port; and the vessel can always switch to one-way charging, which will reduce charging times, once charging infrastructure is available on both ends.

Conclusion

With the route and range requirements finalized, preliminary design of the All-Electric Fast Foil Ferry can be completed, as well as determination of the shoreside infrastructure, permitting, and regulatory requirements. Once the concept design is finished, an economic and environmental analysis can be completed. Stay engaged with our project by visiting our website, and social media: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Questions for this project can be directed to Steffani Lillie, Service & Capital Development Director at 360-478-6931 or SteffaniL@KitsapTransit.com.