Finland's Viking Line has presented a project for the construction of a ferry that, with a length of 195 meters, a width of 30 and a carrying capacity of 2,000 passengers and 650 cars, it is expected to be the largest Ro-Pax ship in the world entirely electrically propelled. The shipping company intends to equip itself with the new unit at the beginning of the next decade to use it on the of 43 nautical miles between Helsinki and Tallinn. The new ship, called Helios, will have a capacity of batteries of about 85-100 megawatt hours and a speed of cruising at about 23 knots. The project will stand out mainly due to the absence of the funnel.

Zero-emission shipping in the Gulf of Finland is promoted by the FIN-EST Green Corridor project which was started by the cities of Helsinki and Tallinn, with founders and partners that also include the ports of Helsinki and Tallinn, the Estonian Ministry of Climate and the companies Viking Line, Rederi AB Eckerö and Tallink Grupp. "It's fantastic - he underlined the CEO of Viking Line, Jan Hanses - that both cities and their ports have committed to creating a green maritime corridor. Electric shipping does not it is achieved only with naval investments. It also requires efficient and reliable charging infrastructure in ports. The port of call for the new electric ships - Hanses announced - will be Jätkäsaari, where the port of Helsinki has in development and expansion program until 2032. The progress of this project is extremely important for our plans." In Helsinki, in fact, the The design of the expansion of the port area has been advanced western to Jätkäsaari, where, according to forecasts, Starting from 2032, all maritime traffic will be focused with Tallinn.

According to forecasts from the Port of Helsinki, traffic passenger between the city's western port area and Tallinn will increase from 5.5 million passengers in 2024 to 11.6 million by 2040. Significant growth is also expected of freight volumes. "The Helsinki-Tallinn route - explained Hanses - recorded a particularly positive trend in the last year and we believe that the volume will continue to increase: There is a strong demand, based on need, for connections between Finland and the Baltic countries. The rates for the EU emissions trading and increasingly restrictive measures - he observed - weigh more and more every year on fossil fuel-based maritime traffic, but the zero-emission technology would allow us to increase the capacity on the route. Our goal - he specified the CEO of Viking Line - is to order two electric ships for the route, which would double our current capacity put in place throughout the year".