Lymington Harbour installs Aqua superPower 75kW fast charger on Solent corridor

Lymington Harbour now has a 75kW DC fast charger on the water, adding a high-power charging node to the UK south coast at one of the Solent’s busiest sailing hubs. The installation is an Aqua superPower Aqua 75 unit, delivered under The Electric Seaway initiative, the £3.2m UK SHORE-backed programme run by Aqua superPower and ZPN Energy with Innovate UK as the main delivery partner.

The charger sits in a harbour that faces the Solent on the edge of the New Forest, a location that draws a steady mix of leisure and commercial marine traffic. For operators already running electric workboats, patrol vessels or day boats in the area, the Aqua 75 cuts charging times substantially compared with conventional AC shore power.

Part of a connected south coast network

The Lymington unit is not a standalone install. It joins established marine charging sites delivered through The Electric Seaway at MDL Ocean Village, the Isle of Wight, Fowey, Chichester Harbour and Falmouth. The programme, launched in 2023, targets vessels under 24 metres and is intended to produce a repeatable model for marine charging infrastructure.

Aqua superPower announced the successful demonstration of The Electric Seaway in 2025, reporting eight new charging sites and an extended fast-charging network across the south coast. The project also trialled workarounds for sites with constrained grid supply, including a battery-backed charging configuration at Fowey Harbour.

For boat owners, the practical point is connectivity. A 75kW charger only earns its keep if the next port can refill you too, and Lymington now links to nearby sites in Chichester, Cowes and Poole. That chain is what turns a single charger into a usable corridor for electric crafts moving along the south coast.

Why Lymington acted now

Lymington Harbour’s leadership framed the install as a climate policy move as much as a service decision. CEO Ryan Willegers points to the harbour’s Climate Commitment Policy, which sets a target of Net Zero by 2050 and a halving of its carbon footprint by 2030. The harbour is already migrating its own work and patrol boats to electric, and Willegers says fast charging makes those conversions more practical.

He was direct about why joining a network mattered more than adding a lone charger: “Giving boaters the confidence to migrate to electric requires a network of reliable charging locations, and the connections with nearby sites in Chichester, Cowes and Poole are an important part of that.”

That network-first framing also shows up in Aqua superPower’s own language. COO Karen Gill described Lymington as a strategic location where high-power charging can remove one of the key barriers to electric propulsion adoption by placing infrastructure where vessels actually operate.

What the 75kW unit actually delivers

The Aqua 75 is a DC fast charger rated at 75kW, positioned for boats that support DC charging rather than relying on AC connections. For a smaller electric day boat or workboat with a compatible charging interface, that is a meaningful step up in recharge speed. The source material does not specify exact vessel-to-fill times, which will vary by battery capacity, state of charge and the vessel’s maximum accepted charge rate, so treat “significantly faster” as directional rather than a fixed number.

The unit supports both leisure and commercial users, which matters in a harbour like Lymington where visiting cruisers and local working boats share the same water and the same pontoons.

The wider charging landscape

The Lymington install lands amid consolidation in marine fast charging. In July 2026, NatPower Marine acquired Aqua superPower’s international charging network from ATV Power, adding more than 80 locations across Europe and North America to its maritime electrification platform. Aqua superPower has also partnered with Hellonext, a DC charging systems manufacturer, to support expansion of marine fast-charging infrastructure.

For UK boat owners specifically, the practical takeaway is that the south coast corridor keeps filling in. A harbour with a working fast charger, backed by a policy commitment and connected to neighbouring sites, is the kind of infrastructure that makes an electric boat a usable proposition rather than a dock ornament.

The honest caveat is the same one that applies across marine charging: coverage is still thin by road-EV standards, and the value of any single unit depends on where else you can go. Lymington is one more node in a network that is demonstrably expanding, but it is not yet a network you can build a long coastal passage around without planning around charger locations.