Stena, Wärtsilä to Build World’s Largest Hybrid Ship

Wärtsilä will supply its hybrid propulsion system for three new RoPax vessel currently built for Stena RoRo, Europe´s largest ferry company. Two of the ferries will have a battery capacity of 11.5 MWh, reportedly making them the marine industry’s largest hybrid vessels to date.

“Stena wants to be a frontrunner in decarbonizing our fleet and, together with our partners, pushing developments towards zero emission operations,” says Per Westling, Managing Director, Stena RoRo. “Hybridization allows our vessels to be highly flexible as we adapt to future technology developments, including green fuels, fuel cells, bigger batteries, and solar or wind supported propulsion.”

The ships have been designed and developed by Stena RoRo and Brittany Ferries and they will be long term chartered to Brittany Ferries for operation between Portsmouth in the UK and French ports of St Malo and Caen. Wärtsilä had already earlier been contracted to supply a broad range of solutions for the vessels, including the main and auxiliary engines, gearboxes, controllable pitch propellers (CPPs), thrusters, the fuel gas supply system, Nacos navigation and automation as well as integrated control alarm and monitoring system. The ships will be capable of operating with either LNG fuel or batteries.

The vessels will be equipped with the latest generation Leclanché energy storage system – the Navius MRS-3 – which has both a size and weight advantage versus comparable marine batteries.

The vessels are being built at the China Merchants Jinling (Weihai) Shipyard. Delivery of the ferries is expected to take place in 2024 and 2025.