First of two Lake Geneva ferries launched
The first of two 700-seat passenger ferries has been launched on Lake Geneva after just over a year’s construction at a dry dock in Lausanne.
The two new vessels, which will carry passengers between France and Switzerland, will shift the emphasis from individual private transport by road to public across the lake, according to ship designer and builder Shiptec, a subsidiary of SGV Holding.
The hybrid Naviexpress ferries use an energy and propulsion system based on the BlueDrive Eco System, says Shiptec, which is a development of the Siemens SISHIP EcoProp System. The capability of switching under load, from electric to diesel propulsion and vice versa, was designed by Shiptec.
”On the one hand, the hybrid concept is used for ’peak shaving’ during high energy demand peaks; on the other hand, the ship is sailing purely electrically near the shores when the combustion engines are switched off,” says Shiptec, which used the principle with the shuttle catamaran MS Bürgenstock.
Wärtsilä 14 engines run with Voith Linear jets, with Voith Inline bow and stern thrusters. The vessels have a maximum speed of 36 km/h (19.5 kn).
To assist the electric charging functions for every seat on board, solar panels have been installed on the roof.
Shiptec says the first hull sections were begun at the end of 2020 by Aluship Technology in Poland, and transported to Lac Léman by summer 2021. Aluship staff assembled the hull while Shiptec looked after the propulsion technology.
The boats will be operated by CGN (Compagnie Générale de Navigation sur le lac Léman), which ’aims to become Switzerland’s reference shipping company in the areas of service quality for passengers, emission reduction and heritage conservation’.
The total cost of the two 61.3m x 11.4m vessels has been estimated at 58 million Swiss francs (€59 million), and both are scheduled to be operational by the end of 2023.
