Salmar goes electric
The aquaculture industry’s first ever electric workboat was delivered to Salmar last week.
The vessel, called ELfrida, was built by the company Ørnli Slipp in co-operation with Salmar and Siemens.
“We were aware that there would be some challenges since this is a completely new technology, but we think we have solved the challenges well with Siemens and have handed Salmar a great boat,” Ørnli’s CEO, Torstein Yttersian, told kyst.no.
He notes that they have faced some challenges in relation to meeting the delivery deadline, which was supposed to be in the autumn of 2016.
“We were delayed by some technical problems with the battery and made changes to the software,” explained Yttersian.
The company has been busy completing the vessel and Yttersian says it actually can go faster than expected – reaching up to 12 knots in trials, despite expectations of a maximum speed of 9-10 knots.
Feedback from the crew has so far been good.
“They do not have to listen to all the noise from the engines, and they do not have to work in diesel exhaust. So all in all it seems promising,” he said to kyst.no.
ELfrida will operate at Salmar’s Kattholmen site, in Sør-Trøndelag, where the catamaran will be operated by captain Stian Sivertsen, with a minimum of a two man crew.
The company are now making their final test runs before the boat is fully operational at Kattholmen this week.
The cost of ELfrida is estimated to be 30% higher than a standard workboat. The company expects it will operate electrically 90-95% of the time.
