SF Bay Ferry wins $12.5M CalSTA electrification grant

San Francisco Bay Ferry reports that it has been awarded $12.5 million grant by the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) to bring zero-emission, battery-electric ferry service to the Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal in Alameda.

The award advances SF Bay Ferry’s Rapid Electric Emission-Free Ferry (REEF) program, a suite of projects designed to transition the agency’s fleet to zero-emission propulsion technology. The grant, provided through CalSTA’s Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP), will support procurement and installation of an electrified universal charging float with battery storage, electric vessel charging infrastructure and terminal modernization at the existing Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal on Bay Farm Isle in the City of Alameda.

“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,” said 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.”

This grant draws on $5 million awarded for the project by the California Energy Commission and $4 million in additional local matching funds. The project will expand electric propulsion ferry service to the Harbor Bay route by providing the necessary infrastructure for fully electric ferries to rapidly charge while docked at this location. It will also increase electric vehicle charging capacity for ferry riders and improve operational safety at the terminal.

“Ron Cowan, who envisioned and developed Harbor Bay, was also the visionary behind the creation of SF Bay Ferry, and he partnered with the Bay Area Council to create it,” Wunderman added. “He foresaw a San Francisco Bay known for its extensive, world class ferry system. Ron passed away in 2017 – he would be very pleased and proud today.”

Supported by the CalSTA grant, SF Bay Ferry 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. The ferry system has carried more than 268,000 passengers on the Harbor Bay route over the past year and more than 2.5 million passengers overall.

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

The 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.

In August, SF Bay Ferry unveiled designs of the vessels that will operate on the Emerging Waterfront Neighborhoods Network. 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.