Corvus Energy lands record 40 MWh CMAL ferry order, plus three more North Sea and Pacific ferry wins

The CMAL order

Corvus Energy has secured what it calls the largest contract in its history measured in USD value: a 40 MWh battery supply deal for seven new fully electric ferries for Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), the Scottish Government owned ferry assets body. Remontowa Shipbuilding in Poland placed the order under CMAL’s Small Vessel Replacement Program (SVRP), which is aimed at cutting emissions and modernising the fleet serving Scotland’s west coast island communities.

Each vessel gets a 5.7 MWh Corvus Dolphin NxtGen Energy Storage System. The delivery schedule runs to 2028: the first system lands in 2026, then three in 2027 and another three in 2028. Stein Ruben Larsen, Senior Vice President of Sales, framed the project as much about coordination as scale, citing the collaboration between designer, yard and integrator throughout the process.

The international supply chain is worth noting for operators watching build quality: naValue of Germany produced the concept design, LMG Marin of Norway the basic design, and Remontowa Marine Design & Consulting of Poland the electrical and detailed design. ABB handles integration.

What is new versus iterative

The hardware itself is not new. The Dolphin NxtGen platform is Corvus’s established liquid-cooled battery line, already specified across multiple ferry programs. What is new here is the order size and the repeatability: seven identical hulls at one yard. That matters for owners because it concentrates the commissioning risk and the service-learning curve into a single multi-year build.

It is not cheap to ignore the framing. Corvus calls this a record order by USD value and the CEO, Fredrik Witte, ties it to record order intake and revenue for the company’s financial year. The claim is directional, not quantitative, but it does signal that large ferry electrification orders are stacking up rather than stalling.

The broader North Sea and Pacific picture

The CMAL win is one of several recent ferry awards that Corvus has publicised. They share a pattern: hybrid or electric-ready designs that can run on battery today or transition later without structural rework.

On the Pacific coast, Corvus received a 40 MWh order for four new hybrid-electric double-ended ferries for BC Ferries, part of the operator’s Summit Class. The four vessels are named Summit Arbutus, Summit Cedar, Summit Maple and Summit Spruce. Each carries 10 MWh of installed battery, among the highest-capacity battery ferries worldwide, plus battery interface bases and pack control systems sized for another 60 MWh per vessel for a total of 70 MWh. That headroom lets each ship sail nearly emission free for up to two hours as shore charging comes online, without major structural changes. The first vessel is due in 2029 from China Merchants Shipbuilding Industry Group Weihai Shipyard, with all four in service by 2031.

Corvus also won a separate, smaller BC Ferries contract through builder Damen Shipyards for four fully electric capable Island Class ferries. These use the Orca ESS platform, 2,034 kWh per vessel, for a cumulative 8 MWh across the four ships. They are scheduled for delivery by 2027 and will serve the Nanaimo to Gabriola Island and Campbell River to Quadra Island routes, carrying up to 390 passengers and 47 vehicles each. Dutch integrator Royal Van Der Leun leads the electrical integration.

A fourth award covers Washington State Ferries, where ABB’s Marine & Ports division selected Corvus Dolphin NxtGen ESS for two new hybrid ferries, with an option for a third. These 1,500 passenger, 160 vehicle vessels are the first of up to 16 under WSF’s $3.98 billion Ferry System Electrification plan. Florida based Eastern Shipbuilding Group holds the shipyard contract, with the first two vessels scheduled for operation in 2030 and 2031.

What the numbers actually mean for an operator

The headline MWh figures need context. On the CMAL ferries, 5.7 MWh per vessel is a substantial install for a small Loch-class car and passenger ferry, but the source does not state route length, crossing time or charging power. Without those, range and turnaround-time claims are not verifiable from this material. The BC Ferries Summit Class “two hours nearly emission free” figure is the most concrete operating number in any of these releases, and it applies to the future 70 MWh configuration, not the 10 MWh initial install.

The Island Class Orca systems at 2,034 kWh per vessel are the only ones in this round where Corvus explicitly highlights fast charging as a design driver, which is consistent with short runs like Nanaimo to Gabriola. That is the honest read: the energy numbers are real and quoted precisely, but they only become meaningful next to route distance and shore charging infrastructure, which several of these programs are still building out.

Caveat

All four announcements are first-party Corvus material. The performance claims, delivery dates and “record” framing come from the supplier, not from CMAL, BC Ferries or WSF commissioning bodies, and not from independent sea trials. Nothing here is vaporware in the sense that these are contracted newbuilds with named yards and timetables. But a reader should treat the two-hours-electric, delivery-window and emissions-reduction language as contractual aspiration until the first hulls are actually in service and clocking voyages.