Damen’s first all-electric harbour tug, the RSD-E Tug 2513, has been officially delivered to its new owner, Ports of Auckland.
Sparky has a 70-tonnes bollard pull and is capable of manoeuvring the largest vessels entering the port. It can undertake two or more assignments before being recharged, which takes two hours.
The vessel is 24.73 metres in length and has two azimuth thrusters with three metre diameter propellers. There are 80 battery racks holding 2,240 batteries, totalling 2,784 kWh of power. Sparky also has two 1000kW back-up generator sets which will only be used in cases of emergency.
Sparky is anticipated to save approximately 465 tonnes of CO2 in diesel emissions annually, and expected operating costs are less than a third of the cost of running a diesel tug.
In 2016, Ports of Auckland adopted the goal of becoming a zero emissions port by 2040 and, in light of the impetus to tackle climate change, the port authority challenged Damen to develop a fully electric tug.
