"My name is EMS Berg": This is how Germany's largest sea-going electric ship experienced its first year

Created: 04/08/2022, 17:00

By: Tobias Gmach

Visited the EMS Berg later for the birthday (from left): Berg's former mayor Rupert Monn, Berg's mayor Rupert Steigenberger, CSU member of parliament Dr.

Ute Eiling-Hütig, shipping operations manager Markus Färber, Starnberg's deputy mayor Angelika Kammerl, Bavaria's finance and homeland minister Albert Füracker and shipping managing director Michael Grießer.

© Photographer: Andrea Jaksch

1,900 operating hours, 50,000 passengers and once with a little too little electricity on board: the electric ship Berg has been in use on Lake Starnberg for more than a year.

Time for a first assessment - from a very personal point of view of the "EMS Berg".

Starnberg – May I briefly introduce myself?

My name is EMS Berg, I'm 35 meters long, 8.20 meters wide and the largest all-electric ship that sails around on a lake in Germany.

I was baptized in May 2021.

Since then, more than 50,000 passengers have boarded me, I have 1900 operating hours on Lake Starnberg behind me - and a canceled tour.

But more on that later.

First of all I want to tell you that I had a visitor on Wednesday morning.

Electric ship on Lake Starnberg: first birthday

Minister of Finance and Homeland Albert Füracker came to the shipyard of the Bayerische Seenschifffahrt on Nepomukweg in Starnberg to officially celebrate my first birthday with me, my people, his entourage and media representatives.

After the fact, of course.

The ministry had postponed the meeting to the summer - when it was organized in spring, the corona situation was not foreseeable in May, says the press department.

By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Starnberg newsletter.

Before everyone was allowed to take a little tour with me, my boss, Seenschifffahrt Managing Director Michael Grießer, led the group through the shipyard - into the painting, carpentry and metalworking shops.

And to the transformer station installed especially for me.

After all, I depend on green electricity for eight to ten hours every night so that I can drive ten hours during the day.

Most of the time it works, but once there was an incident, I almost ran out of juice.

Of course, our Starnberg operations manager Markus Färber did not put it so flippantly in front of the minister: “The wind was extremely strong that day, there were many passengers on the ship.

We returned to the port earlier to keep the reserve.”

In the control center: Captain Wolfgang Fischer with Minister Füracker and Lake Shipping boss Grießer.

© Andrea Jaksch

One of my six helmsmen, Wolfgang Fischer, also knows that many things are different with an electric ship: "It gets tight in strong winds." My boss Grießer emphasized that the power supply is modular and that "battery racks" can be retrofitted.

And Minister Füracker added: "Anyone who does pioneering work also needs frustration tolerance."

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Incidentally, I let myself be driven by joystick, and the passengers only hear noises and vibrations when I'm traveling fast or when I'm parking or leaving a parking space.

“But the other ships are also quiet.

People often ask if they are going on an electric ship,” Fischer told the curious journalists.

And: "The acceleration feels different because there is no clutch point." He also said - although I'm a you: "It pulls quite well."

Starnberger See: The electric ship can be driven with a joystick

Incidentally, according to the minister, I have 20 times the loading capacity of a BMW i4 and save 130 tons of CO2 a year compared to diesel ships.

But I also use 36,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month, the energy infrastructure alone cost a quarter of a million.

By the way, I had to smile when Füracker posed for a photo with the thick cable that supplies me with energy.

I won't get a sister anytime soon, the next e-ship will be "on another lake", said Grießer.

Ammersee, Königssee and Tegernsee come into question.

Converting an entire fleet, accommodating the batteries, all of this is "not that easy", emphasized our managing director.

He closely follows the debates about alternative forms of energy.

But he also said to the group of 20 (up to 300 people can ride with me): "Because of Corona, we have to start earning money again."

You can find more current news from the district of Starnberg at Merkur.de/Starnberg.