Photo credit: Burak The Weekender
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
During my recent travels in Norway, I was able to cross a fjord on an electric ferry boat. Who knew? I certainly wasn’t aware of this technology. Norway is a small country in terms of both size and population. Glaciation shaped much of the coastline, and Norway’s famous fjords extend up to 100 miles inland. The Sognefjord, which we crossed, is the longest at 128 miles long.
Traveling on land from one side of a fjord to the other would be a very long journey, especially before cars and trucks were developed and modern roads were built through tunnels on the fjords’ steep rock walls. Until modern technology allowed these forms of travel, boats were used to cross the fjords for hundreds of years. Diesel exhaust from ferry boats was a major source of air pollution, so Norway developed electric-powered ferry boats. The Business Norway website notes that electric ferries have been used for almost a decade now.
As I recently wrote in a blog post about electric excavators, the Quiet Coalition is concerned about noise, but our parent organization, Quiet Communities, Inc., has noise-associated air pollution mentioned in its mission statement. Diesel engines produce harmful particulate matter, while electric engines do not. The electric ferries were definitely quieter than diesel-powered ferries I have traveled on, and we didn’t have to smell diesel fumes or inhale particulate matter. The ferries automatically connect to large charging devices fastened to docks on either side of the fjord.
I don’t know if this technology can power larger ferry boats in New York City’s waterways, which travel longer distances than across the Norwegian fjords, but I hope our noise colleagues in the city will make elected officials and transportation authorities aware of this wonderful technology.
