The world's first sea-going car and passenger ferry fuelled by renewable energy is to be developed in Scotland.

Port Glasgow-based Ferguson Marine Engineering has successfully bid for funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation fund to develop the HySeas III project.

The supported development is expected to cost around €12.6 million, of which €9.3m has been awarded by the EU 2020 fund.

The initial aim is to build and prove the vessel's modular drive train onshore, testing for stress and durability under conditions employing real-world data from existing vessels, showing that such a vessel can operate safely and efficiently around Scotland's coastline.

Following this successful test, a vessel will be built to operate in and around Orkney - which is already producing hydrogen in volume from constrained - and hence otherwise wasted - renewable energy.

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The HySeas III project, jointly led by shipyard, Ferguson Marine and the University of St Andrews, includes Orkney Islands Council; Kongsberg Maritime (Norway); Ballard Power Systems Europe (Denmark); McPhy (France); DLR - German Aerospace Center; and Interferry (Belgium/US) the global trade association for ferry operators and suppliers.

Overall, the vessel's fuel will be produced from renewable electricity and marks a paradigm shift towards developing entirely emissions-free marine transport.

Chief Naval Architect of Ferguson Marine, Chris Dunn, said: "Over recent years Ferguson Marine has been at the global forefront of green marine propulsion technology development. This exciting project is yet another positive step on that journey and puts us firmly on track to deliver the world's first zero emission, hydrogen fuel cell powered commercial ROPAX ferry in 2020."

Project Coordinator, Dr. Martin Smith from the University of St. Andrews said: "This is a very exciting stage to be at now. This opens the real possibility of Scotland and her key European partners delivering another world-first not simply in ship-building but also in building sustainable local sources of fuelling in parallel."

(LM)