SF Bay Ferry secures $12 million state grant for Harbor Bay ferry route electrification

Public ferry service provider San Francisco Bay Ferry (SF Bay Ferry) has received a $12.5 million grant to set up electric vessel charging infrastructure at the Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal in Alameda as part of the Rapid Electric Emission-Free Ferry (REEF) Program.

SF Bay Ferry’s REEF Program includes procurement of three new 150-passenger battery-electric vessels, two new 400-passenger battery-electric vessels, conversion of four diesel 400-passenger ferries to zero-emission technology, terminal electrification across the system, and expansion and electrification of the agency’s Central Bay Operations and Maintenance Facility in Alameda.

With the $12.5 million grant awarded by the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), SF Bay Ferry will install an electrified universal charging float with battery storage and electric vessel charging infrastructure, and undertake terminal modernization at the existing Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal on Bay Farm Isle in the City of Alameda.

According to SF Bay Ferry, this grant leverages $5 million awarded for the project by the California Energy Commission and $4 million in additional local matching funds.

This project will expand the electric propulsion ferry service to the Harbor Bay route by providing the necessary charging infrastructure. It will also increase electric vehicle charging capacity for ferry riders and improve operational safety at the terminal, the operator explained.

In addition, SF Bay Ferry said it will partner with the Working Waterfront Coalition to provide young adults from disadvantaged communities with opportunities to enter the marine construction and maintenance job market through this project.

“SF Bay Ferry is committed to providing the region with the nation’s first zero-emission fleet of fast ferries and we are making tremendous progress thanks to this latest investment from the Newsom Administration,” commented Jim Wunderman, Chair of SF Bay Ferry’s Board of Directors.

“California understands that decarbonizing the transportation sector is essential to meeting the State’s ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals and this project makes Harbor Bay’s ferry service a part of that effort.”

So far, SF Bay Ferry has secured roughly $154 million in funding from local, state, and federal agencies to implement its REEF Program, including state and federal funding for system planning, new battery-electric vessels, and shoreside infrastructure.

In August 2024, SF Bay Ferry unveiled designs of the vessels that will operate on the Emerging Waterfront Neighborhoods Network and awarded a contract to Swedish maritime battery system supplier Echandia to supply maritime battery systems for the REEF Program.

The agency expects to award procurement contracts for those ferries and the 400-passenger vessels in the coming months. Operation of the nation’s first high-speed battery electric ferry is expected to begin in 2026.