HAV Design has announced a contract for two new battery-powered ferries, which means, it said, that the ferries at the gateway to the Geirangerfjord will be quiet, clean, and green.

HAV Design designs low and zero-emission vessels, and these are the thirteenth and fourteenth ferry designs with zero-emission technology. The two HAV 934 ferries will operate on the Stranda-Liabygda and Eidsdal-Linge routes. They will have a capacity of 80 cars and 249 passengers and will be built at the Turkish shipyard Tersan for Fjord1.

Lars Conradi Andersen, vice president sales, said that the many of battery-powered ferries the company has designed are contributing to a green transition in Norwegian ferry traffic and made many fjord ferry services more environmentally friendly.

Over the course of three years, HAV said it has delivered designs for zero-emission vessels that lead to annual savings of around 60,000 tons of CO2 compared to traditional diesel-powered ferries.

HAV said it runs route simulation and hull optimization at its lab. Large quantities of data on both the ferry design and the individual route are used to create a virtual model of the area and a digital twin of the ferries.

The total design is evaluated in a sustainability perspective to reduce all input factors. The battery is an important factor and low energy consumption is also a major focus, which is more vital than ever although the ferries use renewable energy, according to HAV.