Photo credit: Penguin International Limited
Singapore-based Penguin International Limited (Penguin) has on January 2 brought fully online its Electric Dream project, which comprises three pure electric ferries, three rapid shore chargers and three autonomous charging jibs.
Electric Dream is a private commuter ferry service that shuttles more than 3,000 passengers a day, at speeds of up to 21 knots, between Pasir Panjang Ferry Terminal and Shell’s Energy and Chemicals Park on the island of Pulau Bukom.
During the peak-hour runs, the rapid DC shore chargers take less than 8 minutes to recharge the 1.2 MWh batteries by 400 kWh per ferry, as Penguin notes in a social media post.
Earlier in 2023, Penguin commissioned Singapore’s first pure electric seagoing ship, Penguin Refresh – the first of three 200-pax Electric Dream ferries – which has since been joined by sister vessels, Penguin Recharge and Penguin Renewable.
Penguin is the turnkey designer, builder, owner and operator of the charging infrastructure and the Electric Dream ferries, which in accordance with the company, will eliminate more than 6,000 tons of CO2 annually from the skies over Singapore.
That is the yearly emission from three conventional ferries plying the same route.
Jeffrey Hing, Penguin’s executive chairman, said last April in a speech at the unveiling event of Penguin Refresh: “This project presented itself as a bold challenge against all that was conventional and comfortable in our local maritime industry.”
“For us, this was going to be our most substantial and most profound investment ever in a single project. Electric Dream was privately conceptualised and privately funded. It was a labour of love and pain, faith and doubt, hope and disappointment.”
“Above all, it was a collective endeavour powered by a shared vision of like-minded journey mates.”
