Norwegian Owner Gets State Support to Build Largest Electric Boxships

 

Norwegian shipping company Eitzen Group has secured backing from Norway's innovation fund to build two battery-powered container feeders that may well be the largest of their kind at the time of delivery. 

Energy R&D agency Enova has granted subsidiary Eitzen Avanti a total of $19 million to support two 850 TEU feeders, powered by 100 MWh battery banks. The newbuilds will support a shipping route connecting Norway with Germany and Sweden. 

In addition to the grant for Eitzen, the Port of Oslo will receive an additional $2 million from Enova for a new electric charging station at the Sjursoya container terminal, which will power up the two new ships. 

The container ship projects are the highlight of the funding round, but there are many others. Norway's Polar Energy Shipco will also receive $9 million in funding for an electric bulker; Brim Explorer is getting $4 million for two high-speed electric trimarans for passenger transport; and salmon-farming company Lovundlaks is getting about $5 million for two electric workboats. 

“These projects each show in their own way what is possible with battery electrification in shipping. The technology is now mature and the projects exist,” said Andreas Forsnes Jahn, senior advisor on maritime transport at Enova. “If the electrification of car ferries was the first wave, we hope this will be the start of the second electrification wave in short sea shipping.”

Norway was an early leader in electric-ferry technology, and a Norwegian owner started the electric-boxship trend with the delivery of the Yara Birkeland in 2022. Chinese interests have also invested in battery-electric coastwise feeders, including orders from Ningbo Ocean Shipping and China COSCO, the owner of the current record-holding vessel.