At the Zhenjiang Shipyard, in Jiangsu province, China, the steel-cutting ceremony was held to commemorate the construction of a battery-electric tugboat designed by Robert Allan Ltd. for the Tianjin Port Towing Company.
This vessel is the first for this Chinese company to feature battery-electric propulsion and will be the first tugboat of the AmpRA series developed by Robert Allan Ltd. to operate in that country.
This fully electric tugboat is designed to be equipped with a 7315 kWh battery system, setting a new capacity standard among vessels of this type of less than 500 gross tons.
As the third generation of intelligent ships in the fleet, the tugboat will carry intelligent ship notations, namely i-Ship(M) for advanced machinery systems, i-Ship(E) for energy efficiency, i-Ship(I) for integrated platform capabilities, and i-Ship(T) for towing operations.
