AYK Energy delivers world’s biggest marine battery retrofit

AYK has successfully installed the world’s largest marine battery retrofit to date on Wasaline’s Ro-Pax ferry Aurora Botnia.

The Aurora Botnia ferry has completed a major battery upgrade and is now back in service, running year-round between Finland and Sweden. The work started during normal operation and was finalized at the Turku Repair Yard in Finland.

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As part of the upgrade, AYK Energy installed its new AYK Pisces+ battery system, boosting electric power from 2.2 MWh to 12.6 MWh — five times more powerful than the previous system. The ferry operates this battery alongside Wärtsilä dual-fuel LNG/LBG engines, making it a hybrid vessel.

AYK founder Chris Kruger highlighted the scale of the upgrade, the new system is about 500 kWh larger than the previous biggest retrofit, done on the cruise ship Aida Prima.

AYK is delighted to undertake this groundbreaking upgrade for Wasaline. Our companies share a passion for innovation and decarbonization. It is especially pleasing for AYK to deliver this project on time and on budget. The time for electric vessels has come. Marine battery technology is improving so fast with superior levels of energy density, safety and cost savings […]

…said Kruger.

Wasaline initially aimed for fully carbon-neutral operations by 2030, but the Aurora Botnia achieved this in 2025 by starting to use biogas.

The Vaasa-Umeå route is the first international green shipping corridor in operation. There’s growing demand for environmentally friendly transport in Europe. The entire transport chain can be carbon-neutral today. Expanding our battery capacity with AYK Energy is a major step that allows us to make our vessel even more sustainable. Our collaboration with Finland’s and the region’s energy clusters makes innovative solutions like this possible.

…Peter Ståhlberg, Managing Director of Wasaline, further commented.

As explained, AYK Energy is seeing a surge in demand for its batteries across the maritime industry, supplying cruise ships, ferries, icebreakers, workboats, and large container ships.