An Australian boatbuilder has launched the world’s largest battery-powered ship, Hull 096. Built by Tasmanian manufacturer Incat, it measures 130 metres.
Launched last Friday in Hobart, Hull 096 will operate as China Zorrilla, and can accommodate about 2,100 passengers and 225 vehicles. It is named after a Uruguayan movie and theatre star.
The battery-electric-powered vehicle ferry will travel between the city of Uruguay, Montevideo, two other Uruguayan towns, and the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, The Guardian reported.
The interiors of the ship are incomplete, but it will have a 2,300-square-metre duty-free retail shopping deck, roughly the size of 100 typical Australian homes.
Hull 096 features more than 250 tonnes of batteries and an energy storage system (ESS) with a current capacity of more than 40 megawatt-hours.
The ESS is four times larger than any previous maritime installation and has connections to eight electric-powered water jets. The batteries of Hull 096 will power the ship for 90 minutes.
Once completed, it would boast the biggest shopping area on any ship in the world, Incat said.
Besides being the world’s largest electric ship, Hull 096 is the world’s “largest electric vehicle ever built” at 130 meters, it added.
“We have over 40 years of experience building world-class vessels here in Tasmania, and Hull 096 is the most ambitious, complex, and significant project we have ever completed,” Incat chairman, Robert Clifford, said.
According to Clifford, Incat wants to construct “as many sustainable ships as possible for the international market, both here in Australia and overseas.”
“Hull 096 demonstrates that not only are large-scale, low-emission transport solutions feasible, they are now available,” said Stephen Casey, CEO of Incat.
Tasmania Premier Jeremy Rockliff said at the unveiling that the Australian state was now “a global leader in the push towards zero-emission technology” owing to the new electric ship.