ABB Powers Tourists to the Niagara Falls with First US Built All-Electric Vessels
3.5.2019 18:45:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Niagara Falls tour operator Maid of the Mist orders two new passenger vessels sailing on pure electric power, enabled by ABB’s technology
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190503005349/en/
Maid of the Mist new passenger vessels sailing on pure electric power, enabled by ABB's technology (Photo: Business Wire)
Visitors to the iconic Niagara Falls will soon be able to experience one of the US’s top landmarks emission-free. Two new Maid of the Mist passenger vessels will be powered entirely by high-capacity battery packs, becoming the first all-electric vessels ever built in the US.
The new vessels will benefit from ABB’s zero-emission technology when they start operating later this year, allowing guests to experience Niagara Falls undisturbed by engine noise, vibration or exhaust fumes from a conventional diesel engine.
Maid of the Mist, one of North America’s oldest tourist attractions, operates from April through to the first week of November, with boats departing for the base of Niagara Falls every 30 minutes, with an estimated 1.6 million guests on board annually.
“We are thrilled to be the US’s first vessel owner to add all-electric ferries to our fleet,” said Christopher M. Glynn, president of Maid of the Mist Corp. “We have chosen ABB to support us in our journey towards more sustainable operation based on their unparalleled experience in marine system integration, as well as efficient and innovative technologies for sustainable transportation.”
“Maid of the Mist’s decisive move towards e-mobility signals a new era in the future of transportation and complements ABB’s commitment to power the world without consuming the earth,” said Peter Terwiesch, President of the Industrial Automation business at ABB, which offers solutions for a wide range of industries, including marine. “Reducing emissions at Niagara Falls is not only important for the natural landmark, but also proves that the technologies enabling sustainable mobility are already available today.”
Each of the vessels will be powered by a pair of battery packs with a total capacity of 316 kWh, split evenly between two catamaran hulls. Having two fully independent power systems on board will increase the resilience of operations by creating a redundancy.
The vessels will charge between every trip while passengers disembark and board. Shoreside charging will only take seven minutes, allowing the batteries to power the electric propulsion motors capable of a total 400 kW (563 HP) output. The power setup will be controlled by ABB’s integrated Power and Energy Management System (PEMS), which will optimize the energy use on board.
The batteries will be charged using hydropower – the largest single renewable energy source for electricity generation in the US, which accounts for 7 percent of the country’s total utility-scale electricity generation. The use of locally produced renewable power will make the energy cycle for the operation of the new Maid of the Mist vessels entirely emission-free.
Sustainable transportation has a crucial role in the fight against climate change, with shipping accounting for 2 to 3 percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. The International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency responsible for regulating shipping, has set a global target to cut annual emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050 from 2008 levels.
In addition to integrating the ship-to-shore battery charging connection, ABB will supply the Maid of the Mist newbuilding project with switchboards, drives and the integrated control system, as well as the ABB Ability™ Marine Remote Diagnostic System for remote equipment monitoring and predictive maintenance. ABB Ability™ is ABB’s leading offering of digital solutions and services.
To watch the video, click here.
ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a pioneering technology leader with a comprehensive offering for digital industries. With a history of innovation spanning more than 130 years, ABB is today a leader in digital industries with four customer-focused, globally leading businesses: Electrification, Industrial Automation, Motion, and Robotics & Discrete Automation, supported by its common ABB Ability™ digital platform. ABB’s market leading Power Grids business will be divested to Hitachi in 2020. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 147,000 employees. www.abb.com
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190503005349/en/
Contact information
ABB Ltd
Affolternstrasse 44
8050 Zurich
Switzerland
Media
Relations
Phone: +41 43 317 71 11
Email: media.relations@ch.abb.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Vena To Acquire Acterys, Creating a New Category of Enterprise Performance Management: Orchestrated Planning3.2.2026 18:00:00 EET | Press release
Vena, the only complete FP&A platform powered by agentic AI and purpose-built to amplify the Microsoft technology ecosystem, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Managility Pty Ltd, operating as Acterys (“Acterys”), the industry’s leading Power BI–based operational planning and app development platform, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval. This acquisition unlocks a category-defining way for enterprises to combine planning, analytics, and application development within the Microsoft tools they already trust to run their business. By combining Vena’s Excel-native financial planning and analysis (FP&A) capabilities with Acterys’ proprietary Power BI write-back engine and unified analytics within Microsoft Fabric, Vena is creating the first Microsoft-native environment for Orchestrated Planning, an operating model that moves organizations beyond integrated planning into fully orchestrated and agentic AI-powered execution. Orches
Volante Technologies named a Leader in Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Banking Payment Hub Platforms3.2.2026 17:15:00 EET | Press release
Volante Technologies, the global leader in Payments as a Service (PaaS), today announced its recognition as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Banking Payment Hub Platforms, which evaluates vendors based on Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. In Volante’s view, Gartner positioned them as a Leader based on their capacity to support enterprise-scale payment processing in banks and financial institutions across multiple regions, deployment models, and operational environments. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260203149834/en/ This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. As the highest positioned provider in Ability to Execute, Volante believes its AI-poweredPayments Platform is ISO 20022 native and provides complete, always-on, and composable payment processing support and can be deployed p
Toptal Ranked #1 Most Reliable Professional Services Company in America by Newsweek3.2.2026 17:00:00 EET | Press release
Toptal, the world’s largest fully remote workforce, has been ranked the #1 most reliable professional services company in America on the America’s Most Reliable Companies 2026 list by Newsweek and Statista. The list ranks top US companies based on trust, dependability, and consistent performance in their industry. In Newsweek’s ranking of 300 companies across all industries, Toptal took 10th place, right behind Bank of America and Oracle, which tied for 9th. As the most reliable professional services organization in America, Toptal, which ranked 11th in absolute rankings across all companies, placed well ahead of companies like Accenture (33), Deloitte (39), and Cognizant (66). The America’s Most Reliable Companies 2026 ranking is based on an independent survey of more than 80,000 evaluations submitted by 2,400 business decision-makers at America’s largest companies, including Apple, Dropbox, Johnson & Johnson, and UPS, making this recognition an especially meaningful indicator of prod
HTEC Research Reveals the Real AI Scaling Challenge: It’s Not the Technology3.2.2026 16:46:00 EET | Press release
AI has moved from ambition to action. Every organization is deploying it. Yet for most enterprises, the real challenge is only just beginning. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260203951136/en/ HTEC, a global AI‑first provider of software and hardware design and engineering services, released Executive Summary: A Cross‑Industry View of the State of AI in 2025, a global research report capturing how senior executives are navigating the next phase of AI transformation—and why scaling value remains elusive. Today, HTEC, a global AI‑first provider of software and hardware design and engineering services, released Executive Summary: A Cross‑Industry View of the State of AI in 2025, a global research report that captures how senior executives are navigating the next phase of AI transformation—and why scaling value remains elusive. Based on insights from 1,529 C‑suite executives worldwide, the research offers one of th
Andersen Consulting Adds Collaborating Firm Saratoga Software3.2.2026 16:30:00 EET | Press release
Andersen Consulting strengthens digital transformation offering with the addition of collaborating firm Saratoga Software, a provider of software delivery and specialist technology solutions. Founded in 1998, Saratoga Software provides companies, especially in the financial services and fintech sectors, a comprehensive suite of services, including custom software design and development, business analysis, platform integration and support, quality assurance, project management, and data engineering and business intelligence. With offices in South Africa and the United Kingdom, the firm also specializes in AI and machine learning solutions as well as cloud migration, customer communication management, and strategic technology advisory services. “Our team brings deep engineering expertise, seniority, and a proven ability to solve complex problems — qualities that make us trusted advisors for our clients,” said Anthony Robinson, executive chairman of Saratoga Software. “Collaborating with
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom