Europe Takes First Steps in Electrifying World’s Shipping Fleets

Full electric commercial ferries in Norway are just the beginning. Europe is on track to take commercial shipping from dirty to clean and is doing it now.

Norway’s long and jagged Atlantic coastline — with thousands of islands and deep inland fjords — made the Norwegians a seafaring people long ago, and even today ferry travel is the fastest way to reach many destinations. Given this geography and the country’s abundant hydroelectric resources, it’s hardly surprising that the Norwegians have plunged ahead in the development of electric shipping, beginning with light, short-range ferries.

Since early 2015, a mid-sized car ferry, the MS Ampere , has been traversing the Sognefjord in western Norway from early morning to evening, seven days a week — without a whiff of smokestack exhaust or a decibel of engine roar. The 260-foot Ampere , which carries 120 cars […]

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