Moments after the ferry Wenatchee set sail Thursday, Gov. Bob Ferguson floated the idea that the first of the state ferries to be converted to hybrid-electric power should be renamed for the person standing just behind him, former Gov. Jay Inslee.
Inslee, who set the state ferry system on course to be fully electrified by 2040, smiled and said it should be named for his wife, Trudi, before later saying it actually should be named for the head of ferries, Steve Nevey.
In all likelihood, it will remain the Wenatchee, which Ferguson said would reenter service sometime next week, sailing between downtown Seattle and Bainbridge Island.
Aside all the congratulatory cheer, the presence of two governors reflected the importance of the moment. After 22 months and $133 million, the conversion of the Wenatchee from diesel to hybrid-electric power is the first step in a larger endeavor to completely convert the ferry fleet from diesel to electric power, a cornerstone of Inslee’s environmental legacy.
In all, the state plans to spend nearly $4 billion on the project, which will go toward retrofitting six diesel ferries with hybrid-electric engines, building 16 new hybrid-electric vessels and adding charging stations to 16 terminals. Washington State Ferries, which runs the nation’s largest ferry system, also plans to eventually retire 13 diesel ferries.
Since Inslee left office this year, however, the outlook has dimmed some. The Wenatchee was supposed to be the first of three conversions taking place at Vigor Shipyards on Harbor Island. But Ferguson delayed the rest of the conversions until next summer, at the earliest, saying the state couldn’t afford to have another big vessel out of service while it tries to return the fleet to prepandemic service levels.
While the state has moved forward on the more expensive effort to build new hybrid-electric ferries, a recent bid process that was intended to build five new boats led to a contract of just three, from Eastern Shipbuilding Group, a Florida-based company.
The company that lost the bid — Nichols Brothers Boat Builders on Whidbey Island — said its bid was so much higher than Eastern’s because state employment and environmental rules added extra costs, and predicted that “ferries will never be built in Washington again.”
Regardless, on board the Wenatchee, the mood was bright.
The hybrid-electric Wenatchee ferry docks at Colman Dock in Seattle on Thursday. (Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times)
The hybrid-electric Wenatchee ferry docks at Colman Dock in Seattle on… (Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times)
The Wenatchee, a Jumbo Mark II vessel built in 1998 by Vigor, spent nearly two years out of service as two locomotive-sized diesel engines were removed and replaced with two new engine-driven generators, 864 batteries capable of 5.7 megawatt-hours of energy storage, and thousands of feet of electric and fiber optic cable.
The boat will carry 1,700 people and about 200 vehicles, but passengers won’t notice much of a difference, except for a slight decrease in vibration. Even the pilothouse, where the captain steers the boat, hasn’t really changed.
The biggest changes are down in the engine room. Walls of tan cabinets with baby-blue hinges hold the batteries, and their overall sci-fi vibe looks a bit out of place surrounded by steel machinery that could be a backdrop in a World War II film.
Forrest Nichols, a port engineer, said it’s quieter down there than it used to be, but it’s still loud and still warm.
“That buzzing sound is the electric conversion,” he said, projecting his voice. “It’s cooler down here because we’re not blowing up as much diesel.”
Nichols acknowledged that workers in the engine room had more to learn than crew in other parts of the boat.
“For us engineers, it’s a little more complicated,” said Nichols, noting he still has to know the details of diesel power while learning the new hybrid-electric system. “We’re down to the last 1%. We’re making the best headway we can.”
The Wenatchee should be ready for its first public sailing next week, following final checks by the U.S. Coast Guard. The vessel has already spent 14 weeks in sea trials.
But the state has a ways to go. No shoreside charging facilities have been built, so the Wenatchee will continue to run on diesel fuel until 2029, when the state expects the charging stations to be online. Until then, the Wenatchee will run something like a hybrid car, where the diesel engine powers the generators, which in turn propel the boat.
Also similar to a hybrid car, the ferry has something akin to regenerative braking, which, in cars, captures some of the kinetic energy created while braking to recharge the battery. On the boat, the spare energy that used to come out as heat or added friction is used to charge the battery, making for a quieter, cooler engine room.
With all of that in mind, even before shoreside charging, the boat will use 25% less fuel than before conversion. Once charging is in place, the boat is expected to use 95% less fuel than before its conversion.
The total cost of conversion was $32 million more than the $101 million the state expected it to cost. Vigor was paid about $85 million for the conversion — about $35 million more than anticipated for work that took nearly a year longer than expected. The rest went to preservation, security improvements and program support, WSF said.
Nobody from Vigor joined the governors on board the Wenatchee. The local shipyard was once tightly bound with WSF, and had built the system’s ferries beginning in the 1990s.
Vigor was also set to build the new hybrid-electric ferries, but negotiations with the state fell apart after the company said the first hybrid-electric boat would cost $400 million, a figure that included an additional $68 million after the state insisted Vigor write its perceived risk into its price.
Inslee took a swing at Vigor on Thursday, saying that, contrary to Nichols Brothers’ prediction, ferries would be built again in Washington state because “we have the shipyards, we have the personnel, we have the vision, we just need some management that is interested in going forward with this type of technology.”
That type of management, Inslee said, was not at Vigor, which he accused of “dropping out” of the state’s ferry business.
“When we started this process, Vigor shipyard had extremely progressive, energetic, ambitious leadership and they were working very closely with us to do this project,” Inslee said.
“And everything was on track, and then the company was sold to a different management group, which really never expressed any interest in this particular kind of work.”
Vigor did not respond to requests for comment.
Ferguson, for his part, said he was “certainly interested” in having ferries built in Washington again, and noted that the ferry system will need still more boats sooner than later and encouraged local shipyards to compete.
The Wenatchee’s conversion was funded with $72 million from the Puget Sound Construction Account, which comes from state and federal dollars; $35 million from the 2018 settlement with Volkswagen over violations of clean-air rules that the state pledged toward fighting climate change; $24 million from the Carbon Emissions Reduction account raised by the state’s Climate Commitment Act carbon market; and the rest from money raised by the state gas tax.
Even with all that money and extra time, Ferguson suggested the boat was worth it, saying it was not just the most technologically advanced ferry in the state fleet, but in the nation, with an electric ferry in Texas a distant second.
Before the boat left Colman Dock, Ferguson and Inslee chatted, albeit within earshot of reporters.
“Congratulations, congratulations,” Ferguson said to Inslee.
“We’re on course, heading for the future,” Inslee said. “And Bainbridge Island.”
