World’s largest electrically-powered vessel heads to new home

China Zorrilla is loaded on the Black Marlin semi-submersible heavy lift vessel (Photo: Incat)

Tasmanian boat builder Incat has completed loading of the China Zorrilla (referred to internally as Hull 096) on the Black Marlin semi-submersible heavy lift vessel, which will now take the completed ship across the Pacific Ocean to its new home in South America.

Billed as the world’s largest electrically-powered vessel, the new passenger/vehicle ferry (max. 2,100 passengers, 225 vehicles) will operate on a service between Buenos Aires, Argentina and Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay.

The crossing, on the Rio de la Plata, is about 34 nautical miles and should take approximately 80 minutes.

The China Zorrilla is a catamaran (twin hull) vessel which measures 130 metres in length and 32 metres at the beam. While originally designed to use LNG, the ship was later reconfigured as a 100% zero-emission project.

The vessel features a 40 MWh energy storage system supplied by Corvus Energy. This is made up of 5,016 li-ion modules which are located across four dedicated battery rooms. Total battery weight is reported to be between 250 and 275 tonnes.

To offset this weight, the China Zorrilla was largely constructed from aluminium.

Power is delivered to eight 2,400 kW electric motors (for a total of 19.2 MW) each driving a Wartsilia WXJ1100 water jet. Max speed is 25 knots (about 46 km/h) and maximum runtime per complete charge is 90 minutes.

Recharging infrastructure is equally mighty. Each port has ultra-high capacity stations made up of four 8 MW charging houses that deliver a total 32 MW. The connecting system uses an autonomous charging solution supplied by Zinus which combines an onshore ZPP800 charging tower and onboard SWC200 unit. The charging connection is made automatically when the ship docks.

The system can fast-charge the ship’s batteries in about 40 minutes, sufficient time for passengers to disembark and board.

Having departed from Hobart in early August, the transit is expected to take about 40 days. Once commissioned, the China Zorrilla will be operated by Buquebus.

In his comments about the new vessel, Incat chairman Robert Clifford, said: “Today is a proud day for everyone at Incat. Hull 096 has been the biggest and most ambitious project in our company’s history and its departure is a testament to the skill, dedication and innovation of our entire workforce.

“I want to sincerely thank every person who has contributed to this extraordinary achievement. Thousands of people have played a part in bringing this remarkable vessel to life, and they should all be incredibly proud of what has been accomplished.”