The Swedish shipping company Stena RoRo has taken delivery of its eleventh environmentally friendly E-Flexer, the newbuild “Saint-Malo”.
The ship was built at the Chinese shipyard CMI Jinling and is currently sailing to Europe. It is to be chartered out to the French shipping company Brittany Ferries.
The “Saint-Malo” is expected to arrive in Europe at the end of the year and enter service on 12 February 2025. She is the eleventh of a total of 15 ships on order that are being built at the shipyard in Weihai. Most recently, Stena RoRo ordered two E-Flexers for the Greek Attica Group.
The so-called E-Flexers from Stena RoRo are equipped with multi-fuel drives and also have large electricity storage units on board that can power them with 12 MWh. The ships should be able to manoeuvre in ports using only electricity, without the diesel engines being in operation. According to Stena, this will enable a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved.
Stena RoRo relies on multi-fuel and shore power
The 240-metre-long “Saint-Malo” is also equipped with a connection for shore power and can be charged with an output of 8 MW. In purely electric mode, a speed of up to 17.5 knots is possible, while the diesel engine enables the ship to reach 24 knots. The ship’s engines can be operated with marine diesel (MGO), liquefied natural gas (LNG) or biodiesel and biogas. According to Stena RoRo, a combination of fuels is also possible. There are over 380 cabins on board, which can accommodate up to 1,290 passengers.
The E-Flexer series is based on a basic concept with ships that are larger than most existing RoPax ferries. Stena RoRo announced that each ship will be tailored to the customer’s needs. An optimised design of the hull, propellers and rudders, as well as the possibility to install new environmentally friendly technologies, should help to ensure that the E-Flexer vessels are absolute leaders in terms of sustainability, performance, cost and energy efficiency.
Eleventh E-Flexer ship in the series
“It fills us with great satisfaction and pride that we have now been able to take delivery of the eleventh E-Flexer vessel in the series,” says Per Westling, CEO of Stena RoRo. “There has been continuous technical development within the E-Flexer concept, and we can offer our customers very flexible and future-proof propulsion systems that meet both today’s and tomorrow’s environmental requirements. The large battery hybrid system that we have installed on the Saint-Malo means that the vessel can be operated optimally, in line with regulatory developments or in accordance with the operator’s own guidelines.”
The “Saint-Malo” will be chartered to Brittany Ferries for ten years, with an option to purchase after four years. The French shipping company has ordered a total of five of the E-Flexers to modernise its fleet. The first ferry, “Galicia”, was delivered in fall 2020, followed by the next newbuilds in November 2021 and December 2023. After the “Saint-Malo”, the fifth ship will follow in January 2025.
