Washington State Awards Grant to Test Hydrofoiling Electric Ferry

A county transit agency in Washington State has accumulated more than $5 million in grant funding to design a demonstration-scale electric fast ferry and its shoreside charging infrastructure. The project draws on a 150-passenger vessel design by Glosten and Bieker Boats, and the trial model is designed to prove the technology concept at smaller scale. 

If built, the full-scale carbon fiber vessel for Kitsap Transit would be the first hydrofoil electric fast ferry in the region. The agency believes that the hydrofoiling ferry would reduce CO2 by 75 percent and operating cost by 35 percent when compared to diesel-powered fast ferries on the Bremerton-Seattle route. 

"This is a reliable, ultra-efficient, low-wake vessel designed to be better for passengers and the environment," said Paul Bieker, partner at Bieker Boats. "This technology represents a giant step forward in efficiency for high-speed transportation over water."

The grant funding pool comes from two state sources. Last week, the Washington State Department of Commerce allocated $1.2 million in R&D funds for the demonstration-scale project. Kitsap Transit previously secured a $4 million grant from the state legislature under Washington's Climate Commitment Act, which allocated $3 billion for public transit projects over the next decade and a half. However, a statewide initiative on the November ballot will ask Washington State's voters to choose whether they want to repeal the Climate Commitment Act, and the results of the vote will determine whether Kitsap Transit's $4 million funding tranche will be available.

If the prototype is successful, Kitsap Transit says that it will seek federal funding to build the full-size vessel. It previously applied for a grant of $18.5 million from the Federal Transit Administration in 2022 to complete the full project, but the application was turned down. 

Kitsap Transit's ferry project has backing from the state's maritime innovation accelerator, Washington Maritime Blue, along with three local seaports.