The Orkney Islands Council, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), St. Andrew’s University and several other European organisations are cooperating to build Europe’s first seagoing ferry powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Being called the ‘HYSEAS III’ project, the venture is being funded by a European Union programme of the same name. The consortium members CMAL and AqualisBraemar LOC group have been designing the looks of the HySeas III ferry and finally released the results as you can see in the cover image of this news item.
This hydrogen ferry is conceptualised as a doubled ended passenger and car ferry which gives it the capacity to hold 120 passengers, 16 cars and two trucks. It has been designed to operate on the route between Kirkwall and Shapinsay on the Orkney islands, where green hydrogen is generated through wind power.
The next steps involve testing and feasibility approval of the designs as well as the search for funding partners.
Find more information on the website of the HySeas III project and in this article.