Marine battery manufacturer AYK Energy has installed the biggest marine battery in the world on board Brittany Ferries new hybrid LNG-electric ferry the Saint Malo.
The 12 megawatt-hour (MWh) Orion+ battery was manufactured and installed within four months at China Merchants Jinling Shipyard Weihai. The ferry will operate the Portsmouth UK to St Malo France route starting early next year following successful sea trials.
AYK Energy founder Chris Kruger said the vessel will be able to operate on zero emission battery power while entering and exiting port, immediately improving air quality and cutting emissions in built up port areas. He said the vessel is designed to run on LNG, battery-power or a combination of the two. In Portsmouth the ship will further benefit from the port’s plug-in shore power, the only ferry port in the UK offering electric shore-to-ship power.
“We’d like to thank Brittany Ferries for giving AYK the opportunity to supply our advanced battery system to this incredible new vessel,” he said. “We are delighted the sea trials were successful and we cannot wait to see the ship in operation. A decade after I installed the battery on the first ever hybrid electric ferry, we are now starting to see battery powered electric ships compete with internal combustion engine vessels on price. That is what has to happen if the industry is going to kickstart the transition to electric ships. The change is now starting to happen. The last six months has seen AYK receive a higher number of quotations for vessels requiring bigger batteries than ever before. This includes ferries, tugs and windfarm vessels.”
Mr Kruger said with pressure piling onto European ship owners from regulators in the form of legislation carrying stiff fines such as FuelEU and the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) due to come into force from 2025, going electric is becoming more attractive.
“We have supplied what we call a “power” battery for Brittany Ferries which means it works in combination with fuels like LNG,” he said. “But we are now seeing that the technology is there to go fully electric, with what we call an “energy” battery. This is the future. And AYK made a significant step forward to making this happen by last month launching our newest battery called Pisces. This battery has enough energy density to provide full power to larger vessels such as ferries, OSVs, drill rigs and windfarm vessels.
Mr Kruger added that AYK’s new 5000 sqm Chinese factory in Zhuhai played a key role in installing the batteries in such a tight time frame.
“To make and integrate the batteries within four months shows the advantage of being in China,” he said. “I knew we had to build our first major factory in China as it is far and away the global centre of EV and cell technology. Having the cell maker on our doorstep supercharges the speed of the manufacturing process. We are not having to transport the cells from China to Europe to make the battery then back to China to a shipyard. It’s all done in China saving months on the job.”
Kruger said production is ramping up at AYK’s factory with sales already projected to reach 100 MWh in 2024. He said the company is now actively looking at building gigafactories in Europe and America to support the growth of the business.
Kruger is known as one of the founders of marine battery technology, having worked first in the electric car industry before moving to marine. He developed the battery for the first hybrid propulsion ferry, Prinsesse Benedikte, and the first fully electric ferry, Ampere in 2012. A native South African now based in Andorra he established AYK Energy in 2018 building its first factory in 2023 in China to be close to the center of the battery industry supply chain which he says is 10 years ahead of Europe.
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