Coastal Workboats receives £6m to demonstrate the UK’s first commercial, electric workboat

UK Research and Innovation has granted £6m (US$7.6m) of UK government funding to Coastal Workboats to design and build the first fully electric workboat and charging station for the Shetland Islands.

This will lead to a UK-first demonstration of electric workboats in a commercial environment which will see the team working closely with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to enable the demonstration of the vessel.

The purpose-built Electric-Landing Utility Vessel (E-LUV) will be demonstrated initially for four weeks, operating as a workboat or ferry between West Burrafirth and Papa Stour. Each trip will take 45 minutes and the E-LUV will run twice daily, five days a week.

Coastal Workboats has partnered with Coastal Pure, Coastal Workboats Scotland and BK Marine, a commercial boat operator based in the Shetland Islands. According to the partners, the area is especially challenging as the islands have low grid power to support the recharging of electric vessels so the design needs to include some innovative solutions.

The prototype will incorporate a shore-based power unit with rapid charging capability to reduce turnaround times. The power unit will also be portable, allowing it to be carried on board the E-LUV to extend the range of the vessel.

Julie Pogson, founding director of Coastal Workboats, said, “We’re working hard to build a really tough boat that will be able to provide a critical service in often difficult conditions around the Shetland Islands. We’ll be maximizing battery storage and matching the power of a conventional vessel with a similar operating profile. Using electric drives instead of a diesel engine will also be safer and need less maintenance.”

The fully electric inter-island workboat demonstration project is part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 3 (CMDC3). This has allocated £60m (US$76m) to 19 projects from across the UK to deliver real-world demonstration projects in clean maritime solutions between April 2023 to March 2025. CMDC is funded by the UK Department for Transport as part of the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions program and is being delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.

Pogson added, “We were absolutely ecstatic when we heard we’d got the funding. It’s a game-changer for our business – a massive challenge, too, but one we’re going to rise to because it will transform our future. Our aim is to become a leading UK designer and builder of zero-emission commercial workboats and this funding will help us achieve that.”

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