Recently, Nelton has had an opportunity to take part in number of interesting and challenging projects. One of them has been a preparation of a concept of Elec3city – electric car-passenger ferry.
According to initial assumptions, the vessel would operate on 22 kilometer route between Gdansk and Hel – Polish cities by the sea known for huge touristic attractiveness. It would have a capacity of around 80 cars, 200 passengers, and a bike parking for cyclists. Most importantly, however, Elec3city would be environmentally-friendly thanks to fully electric propulsion supported by photovoltaic panels installed on the upper deck. With such propulsion, the ship would be able to operate at the speed of about 14-16 knots, which means that the cruise could take even less than 1 hour. Currently, due to imperfect transport conditions between the cities, the trip from Gdansk to Hel may take 2-4 hours, depending on the chosen mean of transport. Thus, Elec3city would contribute not only to the reduction of road congestion and travel duration, but also to the decrease of CO2 and NOx emissions produced by cars.
In the concept of the ferry it has been assumed that the vessel would operate 365 days per year thanks to modular construction of its deck. Such solution would enable changing the ship’s space according to owner’s needs. For instance, during the season, the ferry might have a restaurant set-up, while after the season, the deck’s space might be expanded in order to transport trucks. Therefore, there are many ways for the vessel utilisation.
In 2014, Nelton had an opportunity to take part in the design of world’s first all-electric car ferry Ampere awarded with Ship of the Year Award 2015, and operating in Norway. This experience has helped the company to develop further in the area of environmentally-friendly vessels, which has resulted in the Elec3city. If the concept is subsidized and, eventually, executed, the ferry might become innovative on a global scale and contribute to the creation of a completely new reality in the sea travel in Poland.
