The most eco-friendly passenger ferry in the world will be equipped with Kone elevators

The leading elevator and escalator company KONE will supply elevators for Aurora Botnia, a new passenger ferry being built at the Rauma Marine Constructions shipyard in Finland. With three eco-efficient KONE MonoSpace® elevators, KONE will ease the flow of passengers and goods on board.

Scheduled for completion in 2021, Aurora Botnia is a new Wasaline ferry that will operate the route between Vaasa, Finland and Umeå, Sweden. The ferry will accommodate 800 passengers and it will have a freight capacity of 1,500 lane meters. The most environmentally friendly passenger ferry currently under construction, Aurora Botnia will run on both liquefied natural gas and biogas.

 

“We can see in all parts of the world that sustainability is becoming increasingly important for our customers. We highly appreciate this opportunity to help Wasaline to be even more sustainable by delivering our energy efficient people flow solutions,” says Timo Pakarinen, Head of Marine Business at KONE.

 

”KONE was a natural choice for us, as the quality of their solutions is good. Of course, it is a plus that they are a Finnish company,” says Peter Ståhlberg, Managing Director of Wasaline.

 

KONE will ease the flow of people and goods on Aurora Botnia with two KONE MonoSpace® passenger elevators and one KONE MonoSpace® service elevator. The space-saving KONE MonoSpace® does not need a machine room, so it saves construction costs and reduces weight, and gives naval architects greater design flexibility. The elevator provides energy-efficient vertical transport in a compact space, and since there is no need for a machine room, it can even serve the topmost deck or allow for more free space on the bridge deck.

 

The KONE elevators are designed and built for the tough demands of marine installations, and to meet today’s sustainability benchmarks. They are powered by KONE EcoDisc®, a compact and gearless technology that lowers energy consumption, reduces demands on space, and improves reliability. It is designed for a long operational lifespan and consumes significantly less energy than a comparable geared hoisting machine. KONE is a pioneer in developing regenerative systems that recover elevators’ braking energy that would otherwise be lost as heat. These solutions transfer up to 90% of this energy back to the network where it can be used immediately to power lighting, for example.

 

About KONE: KONE’s mission is to improve the flow of urban life. As a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, KONE provides elevators, escalators and automatic building doors, as well as solutions for maintenance and modernization to add value to buildings throughout their life cycle. Through more effective People Flow®, KONE make people’s journeys safe, convenient and reliable, in taller, smarter buildings. In 2019, KONE had annual sales of EUR 10 billion, and at the end of the year approximately 60,000 employees. KONE class B shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. in Finland. To read more about KONE’s solutions for marine environments, please visit https://www.kone-marine.com/ .

Owned by Kvarken Link Oy, Wasaline is the northernmost shipping company that transports passengers and cargo daily between Vaasa, Finland and Umeå, Sweden. Wasaline’s new vessel, under construction in Rauma, Finland, will be delivered in May 2021.

For more information: www.wasaline.com. More about the new vessel: www.kvarkenlink.com.

 

For more information:

Peter Ståhlberg, Managing Director, [email protected], phone: +358 40 5592353

Press contact:

Catarina Fant, Head of Marketing, Kvarken Link, [email protected], phone: +358 46 921 5811

Hanna Rutanen, Director, External Communications, KONE Corporation, tel. +358 41 507 1361, [email protected]