The world’s first hydrogen ferry goes into operation today

There are Danish-developed fuel cells from Ballard on board when Nordled's MF Hydra is put into regular operation today as the world's first ferry powered by hydrogen. "A historic day both for Nordled and for Norway as a leading shipping nation," says the CEO of Nordled.

Since the beginning of the year, the hydrogen ferry has been thoroughly tested, in recent weeks at sea and has now received the final approvals from the Norwegian Maritime Authority.

And today the ferry is put into operation between Nesvik and Hjelmeland on the Norwegian west coast not far from Stavanger.

"It is fantastic! There are only two players in the world that use liquid hydrogen as a fuel - it's Norled on MF Hydra and then it's the aerospace industry, which uses it for launches. It says something about the technological leap that has now been implemented in the maritime industry," says Heidi Wolden, CEO of Norled.

The fact that Norway will be the first country in the world to use hydrogen technology on a ferry is due to the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, which made hydrogen operation a requirement when the route was tendered.

"We have a tradition of using our role as a billion-dollar buyer to accelerate development in order to achieve the goals set for the transport sector. It is important for us to use purchasing power for conversion. Zero-emission vessels are an important part of this," says Anders Sæternes from the ferry department of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.

More than 20 years ago, demands from the Norwegian Road Administration were behind MF Glutra, which became the first car ferry in the world powered by LNG, and 11 years ago, the authority was behind the tender that resulted in MF Ampere, the world's first electric propeller-driven ferry.

"And with the world's first hydrogen ferry in operation, we are taking another big step towards zero emissions, both for ferries and other industries, in Norway and the rest of the world," says Anders Sæternes.

The 82-meter-long MF Hydra was built and built by the Vestcon shipyard in Norway and has a capacity for 299 passengers, 80 cars and ten wagon trains.

And the liquid hydrogen on board is converted into electricity by two 200 kW Danish-developed fuel cells from Ballard.