linguistic:translation
Alternative fuels

With the price of oil at high levels, and with increasing pressure from consumers for measures to tackle global warming, a number of innovations for energy and the environment were put forward at the Interferry conference in Stockholm. According to the company Solar Sailor, hybrid marine power and solar wing technology are suitable for use with ferries, private yachts and even tankers.

Alternative fuels are becoming more widespread on ferries. The fastest passenger ferry in the world Buquebus, runs on LNG, while Sweden's Stena converted one of its ferries to run on both diesel and methanol in 2015. Both LNG and methanol reduce CO emissions considerably and replace costly diesel fuel.

Megawatt-class battery electric ferries operate in Scandinavia, with several more scheduled for operation. As of 2017, the world's biggest purely electric ferry was the MF Tycho Brahe, which operates on the Helsingør–Helsingborg ferry route across the Øresund between Denmark and Sweden. The ferry weights 8414 tonnes, and has an electric storage capacity of more than 4 MWh.

Since 2015, Norwegian ferry company Norled has operated e-ferry Ampere on the Lavik-Opedal connection on the E39 north of Bergen. Further north on the Norwegian west coast, the connection between Anda and Lote will be the world's first route served only by e-ferries. The first of two ships, MF Gloppefjord, was put into service in January 2018, followed by MF Eidsfjord. The owner, Fjord1, has commissioned a further seven battery-powered ferries to be in operation from 2020. A total of 60 battery powered car ferries are expected to be operational in Norway by 2021.

Since 15 August 2019, Ærø Municipality have operated E-ferry Ellen between the southern Danish ports of Fynshav and Søby, on the island of Ærø. The e-ferry is capable of carrying 30 vehicles and 200 passengers and is powered by a battery "with an unprecedented capacity" of 4.3 MWh (5,800 hp⋅h). The vessel can sail up to 22 nautical miles (25 mi; 41 km) between charges – seven times further than previously possible for an e-ferry. It will now need to prove it can provide up to seven return trips per day. The European Union, which supported the project, aims to roll out 100 or more of these ferries by 2030.

A special feature is the Danish Udbyhøj cable ferry in Randers Fjord which has a land-based power supply by means of a retractable submarine cable.