Full electric hydrofoil ferry enters service

[dan_b]

Now this looks cool!
I remember going on the Hydrofoil ferry along the Danube from Vienna to Budapest many many years ago! Was amazing when it got up on the foils and flew along at 60kph.

https://electrek.co/2024/10/29/the-worl ... perations/

[AE-NMidlands]

ditto Naples back to Sorrento.
I was surprised to read

“Conventional ships haven’t evolved much in 100 years and are among the least energy-efficient transport modes, only rivaled by a battle tank,” says Gustav Hasselskog, Founder and CEO of Candela.
That’s not an exaggeration. Stockholm’s approximately 70 public transport vessels use more fossil fuels than the city’s buses and trains combined, despite representing only a small share of total ridership. Water transport is traditionally costly and slow, as the vessels create large wakes, limiting their speed in many areas. But with Candela’s P-12 electric hydrofoil ferry, trips are now not only quicker and more comfortable, but also more efficient and with significantly lower costs.

as I thought shipping was far more energy-efficient than road transport...

[John_S]

ditto Naples back to Sorrento.
I was surprised to read

“Conventional ships haven’t evolved much in 100 years and are among the least energy-efficient transport modes, only rivaled by a battle tank,” says Gustav Hasselskog, Founder and CEO of Candela.
That’s not an exaggeration. Stockholm’s approximately 70 public transport vessels use more fossil fuels than the city’s buses and trains combined, despite representing only a small share of total ridership. Water transport is traditionally costly and slow, as the vessels create large wakes, limiting their speed in many areas. But with Candela’s P-12 electric hydrofoil ferry, trips are now not only quicker and more comfortable, but also more efficient and with significantly lower costs.

as I thought shipping was far more energy-efficient than road transport...

I bet that most of Stockholm's public transport vessels operate in a semi-displacement mode which is notoriously inefficient at high speeds but is convenient for the travelling public as it is fast.

The following shows the fuel saving achieved by slowing down. However, the 33% decline in fuel per day is offset by the vessel travelling 12.5% less distance per day. The true saving is 24%.

Fuel consumption by a containership is mostly a function of ship size and cruising speed, which follows an exponential function above 14 knots. For instance, while a containership of around 8,000 TEU would consume about 225 tons of bunker fuel per day at 24 knots. At 21 knots, this consumption drops to about 150 tons per day, a 33% decline. While shipping lines would prefer consuming the least amount of fuel by adopting lower speeds, this advantage must be mitigated with longer shipping times as well as assigning more ships on a pendulum service to maintain the same port call frequency.

Source https://transportgeography.org/contents ... =Normal%20(20%2D25%20knots%3B,at%20speeds%20around%2024%20knots.