M/F ''Tycho Brahe'' is a Danish battery-electric car-ferry owned by

ForSea Ferries ForSea Ferries is a ferry company serving the route between Helsingborg, Sweden and Helsingør, Denmark. Until 2018 the company was called HH-Ferries Group, and the trading name Scandlines was used. The Helsingør–Helsingborg ferry route crosse ...

that operates on the

HH Ferry route HH may refer to: Organizations * Happy Hippie Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Miley Cyrus * Hartmann House Preparatory School, an independent preparatory school in Harare, Zimbabwe * Heirs Holdings, a Nigerian conglomerate with ...

. It has been in use since 1991. The ship is bidirectional, which means it can change direction without turning around, so no time is lost for this. The ship is also able to accelerate and decelerate quite quickly to and from her maximum speed of 14 knots. The ship is named after the Danish astronomer

Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe ( ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe; generally called Tycho (14 December 154624 October 1601) was a Danish astronomer, known for his comprehensive astronomical observations, generally considered to be the most accurate of his time. He was k ...

. M/F ''Tycho Brahe'' was built by Langsten Slip & Båtbyggeri in

Tomrefjord Tomra or Tomrefjord is a village located in Vestnes Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located just south of the village of Vik at the end of the Tomrefjorden. The village of Fiksdal lies to the northwest. The village ha ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. Currently, the ship is owned by

Scandlines Scandlines is a ferry company that operates the Rødby–Puttgarden and Gedser–Rostock ferry routes between Denmark and Germany. Scandlines owns 7 ferries, 6 of which are hybrid ferries, making Scandlines the owner of the world's largest fl ...

A/S and operated by ForSea (previously Scandlines GmbH). Between 1991 and 1997, M/F ''Tycho Brahe'' was owned by DSB Rederi. The ferry can carry 1250 passengers, and either 260 trucks, 240 cars or 9 passenger train coaches at one time. It was built with three railtracks inside, with a total length of 266 meters.

Conversion to electric

M/F ''Tycho Brahe'' has a sister ship, M/S ''Aurora af Helsingborg''. The two ships were originally diesel-powered, but were converted in 2017 to full

electric propulsion Spacecraft electric propulsion (or just electric propulsion) is a type of spacecraft propulsion technique that uses electrostatic or electromagnetic fields to accelerate mass to high speed and thus generate thrust to modify the velocity of a sp ...

. Each ship has a 4

MWh A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...

battery, weighing 57 metric tonnes, located at the top of the ferry between the chimneys. The batteries are recharged from land by a robot arm when docked, at 10.5 M W (10.5 k V, 600 A) for 6 minutes in Denmark and 9 minutes in Sweden. Each trip uses about 1,175

kWh A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...

and is scheduled to last 20 minutes similarly to the diesel ferries. Two of the four Wärtsilä-Vasa 6R32E diesel engines have been removed from each ship, with the other two as a backup system, not for daily operation. Main specifications: * Length: 111 m/364 ft 2 in * Beam: 28,2 m/92 ft 6 in * Draft: 5,7 m/18 ft 8 in * Tonnage: 12000 gt * Machinery: 4 thrusters of 1.5 MW each, 4.1 MWh

Li-ion A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible Redox, reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It als ...

batteries. Backup system: two-shaft, diesel, 3350 hp File:Skåne 2018-07-20 (29537047857).jpg, Tycho Brahe in 2018 File:Battericontainrar Tycho Brahe.jpg, Batteries on top File:20190531 Fersea Tycho Brahe Helsingor 0120 (47981263576).jpg, Tycho Brahe in 2019

Gallery

Image:MF Tycho Brahe.jpg Image:MF Tycho Brahe (2).jpg Image:Tycho Brahe Robotic Charging System.jpg

References

* The Encyclopedia of ships. General editor: Tony Gibbons. Silverdale books, 2002, . Page 216.

External links

M/F Tycho BraheForsea ferriesFully charged show on electric ferriesElectrek: Two massive ferries are about to become the biggest all-electric ships in the world
Ferries of Sweden Ferries of Denmark 1991 ships {{ferry-stub