Relieving power grids: Parked electric cars charge electric ferries

The Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences in Lower Saxony, together with the shipping company Norden-Frisia, has started a research project on the bi-directional charging of electric ferries via parked electric cars. The project “Bi-directional Integration of Electric Vehicles” aims to investigate how the regional power grid can be relieved to realize ferry connections with electrically powered ferries from the mainland to the East Frisian Islands. The ferry traffic, previously based on fossil fuels, is thus to be replaced by a more environmentally friendly alternative.

The approach of the research project consists in integrating electric cars to charge the electric ferries via a Vehicle-to-Grid system (V2G). Electric cars parked in the Norden-Frisia shipping company's parking lot are charged during the parking process via a 1700-kWp photovoltaic system (PV) with stationary electrical storage installed there since 2024. The researchers and the shipping company use the stored energy to charge a fully electric passenger ferry that has been in operation between Norddeich Mole and the island of Norderney since March 2025.

Relieving the local power grid

As soon as the ferry arrives in the harbor, the energy stored in the batteries of the electric cars flows into the ferry's charging system to charge its batteries. In addition to the electricity from the decentralized energy storage systems, the electricity from the photovoltaic system is also used to charge the electric ferry. The researchers and the shipping company hope this will significantly relieve the local public power grid. The electricity produced on-site via the PV system can be better utilized and the public power grid relieved, according to the approach of the researchers at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences.

“By using vehicles as decentralized energy storage, the share of renewable energy is maximized, the grid is relieved, and the vehicle batteries are kept in a 'wellness mode',” says Hans-Jürgen Pfingster, Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences and one of the two project leaders.

The Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences and the shipping company Norden-Frisia now want to find out by January 2027 how sustainable business models and energy supply systems for fossil-free mobility, including ferry operations, can be created with such bi-directional approaches.

The project will receive funding of 164,894 euros from the German Federal Environmental Foundation (BDU) until the end of the project.

(olb)