Nicola Sturgeon’s Flagship Hybrid Ferry Now Only Runs on Diesel As Battery Too Expensive to Fix
The MV Hallaig, a hybrid electric ferry in Scotland, celebrated for reducing emissions, is now running on diesel due to a lengthy £1.5 million battery replacement. The Daily Record has the story.
The MV Hallaig was the first in the world to use a system which cut carbon emissions by 20% when it was launched in 2012.
But the battery broke on the £10 million vessel in September and bosses have admitted it could be April 2025 before it’s fixed because the replacement part is no longer available.
It’s now the third problem ferry in Scotland after the controversy over the MV Glen Sannox and MV Glen Rosa which are six years overdue and £260 million over budget.
Alfred Baird, formerly Professor of Maritime Business and Director of the Maritime Transport Research Group at Edinburgh Napier University, said he was consulted on the hybrid ferries but advised against them. He claims officials at the Scottish Government then complained to his bosses about his work and tried to stop his research being published.
He said: “The strategy was flawed in that it specified use of earlier battery designs that were much heavier than are now available, and operationally riskier – implying they should have continued with more efficient diesel designs until battery technology had improved sufficiently – as was the general industry practice within the ‘commercial’ ferry industry who were waiting on better technology coming along.
“The main weaknesses were therefore, one, inefficient and costly hull designs developed in-house and/or by insufficiently experienced naval architects. Two, the selection of inefficient/early battery technology which led to three higher costs of shoreside infrastructure.”
He added: “My research paper was submitted to Transport Scotland and ferry agencies at the time, also in my role as an independent Member of the Scottish Government’s Ferry Advisory Group, a Ministerial appointment. However, the officials not only ignored my advice, they complained to my university hierarchy about my research and sought to prevent publication.”
Baird’s report claimed the total running cost of the hybrid ferries would be 259% more than a diesel only equivalent. Sturgeon was described as the ship’s godmother and said at the time it “symbolised everything the Scottish Government is striving to achieve”.
It was built at the now nationalised Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow following more than £20 million of Scottish Government investment.
Worth reading in full.
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“symbolised everything the Scottish Government is striving to achieve”.
Oh, this certainly confirms everything the SNP are trying to achieve. A country so screwed up, down and sideways that it is going to reach derelict, woketard, Third World bankruptcy status sooner than England.
A depressing end for a country that has given so much to the world. And all because of a few venal, utterly corrupt and humanity hating imbeciles who care about nothing but themselves.
Indeed, “Beam me up, Scotty”. He was ‘Scotty’ because every ship’s engineer at one time was a Scot. Very sad tale.
👍👍👍
Have you ever heard of The Named Person Scheme? Google it. ——How about the Hate Speech Laws whereby people in Scotland could be prosecuted for what they say in their own living room? ——-The disgusting SNP are on a downward spiral with donations drying up since the scandal with their Independence money and the Trans prisoner crap. It looks like the Scots who only voted for this bunch of parasites when they fell out of love with New Labour may be ditching them, but the bad news is that this might give us a Labour Government for a long period.
“The Named Person Scheme?”
Yes, I am well aware of this beyond dystopian attempt at destroying families.
“the Hate Speech Laws”
Absolutely aware of this.
Credit where due, Bliar must consider his devolution successes as his most important work.
One way or another that treasonous Next Tuesday has pho#ked over all parts of the United Kingdom.
It doesn’t matter if people in Scotland elect a Labour or SNP MP as Labour would find it very easy to do a deal with the SNP if they needed to form a coalition government. As a proud unionist living in Scotland I’d like to see Labour take a lot of seats off the SNP as the price of a coalition would be another independence referendum, which is the last thing Scotland needs even if it ends up as a no victory since the uncertainty would be bad for the economy. There’s some seats in rural areas where the Conservatives came second to the SNP in 2019 so I collapse of support for the SNP wouldn’t be all bad news.
The last thing we want is Euros in our wallets, Laws made in Brusses and a Central Bank in Frankfurt. ——–This is simply the SNP cutting out the middle man at Westminster and becoming local administrators of the EU outpost. Maybe they will rename it Scotlandia. A land full of turbines and heat pumps and Gaelic on all the Ambulances and Police Cars. ——-Perhaps if someone in the SNP owns a dictionary they can look up “Independence”. It means “Free from the Authority or Jurisdiction of Others”——–In the EU no one is therefore “Independent”. ——–Lets ask the Poles if they are “Independent” when the EU fines them half a million Euros a day for daring to keep using coal.
So why does England want to keep this drag-anchor attached. I vote for an independent Scotland – the sooner the better.
Next an independent London.
A fair point.
It is only a drag with eco socialists running the country that are dumb enough to want to pour concrete in the oil and gas wells.
Can you imagine what a battery fire would look like on one of these ferries. Imagine a Tesla fire x 100
It would probably be the size of a Mobile Home (The SNP have history with Mobile Homes I believe), as a car battery is like a mattress.
These are the people who want to build 15 minute cities. In their dreams.
“Hey ho the witch is dead. Hey ho the wicked witch is dead”. ——-The Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz.
This song reached number 1, or maybe 2, in the charts based on downloads after Thatcher died but radio 1 refused to play it.
Yes, but I see now why Sturgeon wanted to pardon all the witches that were burned in the 1600’s. She was only looking out for herself.
How long would it take to charge the batteries on a large ferry? Could the grid in a relatively isolated port such as Oban, Ullapool or on one of the Scottish Islands handle the surge in demand from a rapid charge? It’s probably best the batteries turned out to be duds.
No, it is simply a realisation that secondary cells have a limited charge discharge life. It may be a few thousand cycles if one is lucky, but fail they will due to simple chemistry. It appears that the “electric” freaks do not understand this, but as they actually understand nothing, it is an inevitable outcome! A ships diesel engine will run quite reliably for a hundred thousand operating hours with little maintenance, certainly nothing on the scale of total replacement. It seems that politicians last much less time than diesel engines, but then the design is hopelessly faulty!
I imagine that the ferry itself was lower in carbon emissions, however, how was the battery charged and what level of emissions were there in manufacturing the battery option as compared to a standard diesel ferry?
A one size fits all obsession with carbon and every single thing seen through the prism of a climate crisis is beyond parody. But it is hitting everyone standard of living and well being.
In terms of ‘Climate Change’ policies in general (which of course dominate not just Scotland but the UK and wider western world) if only we had some example from history of the calamitous effects of state command and control of technology, energy, transport, industry etc…
(hint – the largest country in the world 1917 – 1991).