All-electric vessel wins 'Tug of the Year'

Tugboat ‘Sparky’ — reportedly the world’s first all-electric ship-handling tug — has won the prestigious ‘Tug of the Year’ award at the 2022 International Tug & Salvage Awards in Istanbul, Turkey. Built by Damen, the powerful, emission-free tug has a 70-ton bollard pull that will stack up with the performance of any conventional tug. The winners were announced at the ITS Awards show, in the presence of the industry community.

Most ship-handling harbour tugs operate under harsh conditions and are set to take on heavy-duty jobs. Thus, tugboats running on lithium batteries might seem like an exceptionally difficult proposition. However, since August 2022, Sparky has operated at New Zealand’s Ports of Auckland on LTO batteries manufactured by Echandia, a Swedish company specialising in the development of advanced battery and fuel-cell systems for maritime and industrial applications. Sparky can take on two to four assignments before recharging, the company said.

Electrifying port operations is key to lowering harmful emissions and increasing quality of life in harbours and densely populated areas. Ports of Auckland is a forerunner and has set a target to become emission-free by 2040. Given the size of its operations, this is no small task. With Sparky, that is not only feasible, but also economically viable, according to Echandia; a single electric tug like Sparky can abate around 500 ton of CO₂ per year with a running cost of less than a third of a diesel-equivalent tug.

“We are extremely happy that the E-tug Sparky can show the way for other ports and operators to become more efficient,” said Echandia CEO Fredrik Hellström. “With this groundbreaking achievement, we now actually see a huge interest in making port operations emission-free with our battery systems.”

Sparky is a 25-metre-long vessel with a draft of six metres. It has a twin set of azimuth thrusters with a three-metre diameter. The tugboat is powered by Echandia’s E-TUG, LTO-based battery system. The 2.8 MWh battery system is especially well suited for high-power operations (10 MW of peak power) and fast charging.

Echandia’s battery system has a lifetime equal to the 30-year planned lifetime of the vessel, the company said, making its total cost of ownership extremely low — equal to or lower than that of a diesel-powered tug.

Image courtesy of Echandia.