ABB Powers Tourists to the Niagara Falls with First US Built All-Electric Vessels
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
Compass Pathways to Host Webinar on Commercial Preparations for Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) and Clinical Trial Plans for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on January 7, 2026, 10:00am ET9.12.2025 13:30:00 EET | Press release
Compass Pathways plc (Nasdaq: CMPS), a biotechnology company dedicated to accelerating patient access to evidence-based innovation in mental health, announced today that management will host a webinar to discuss the company’s commercial preparations for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and clinical trial plans for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from 10:00-11:30 am ET on January 7, 2026. The discussion will include KOL and industry leaders’ perspectives on the current treatment landscape and the significant unmet need in treating both TRD and PTSD. The company’s collaboration partners will discuss patient care pathways, provider economics for multi-hour treatments, and the development of treatment models in TRD. Compass Pathways’ management team will review commercial readiness activities and the emerging profile of COMP360 in TRD, as well as highlight the unmet need in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and provide details of the planned late-stage program for COMP360 in
Brands Poised for Growth: NIQ Identifies the Strategies Behind 2025’s Top Performing Innovations9.12.2025 13:00:00 EET | Press release
NielsenIQ (NYSE: NIQ), a global leader in consumer intelligence, today released its 4th Annual Innovation Vitality Report, revealing the strategies that are helping brands achieve multi-year growth from their innovation pipelines. Drawing on data from over 70,000 manufacturers across 130 categories, the report highlights the practices that double a company’s likelihood of expanding overall sales through top performing innovation. As retailers accelerate shelf refresh cycles and private label competition intensifies, brands are under increasing pressure to design innovations with staying power. NIQ’s findings show that top performing innovators consistently follow a repeatable formula, rooted in strong consumer-led ideas, early performance signals, and cross functional alignment, to build products that deliver long-term, incremental growth across global markets. Key Findings from the 2025 Innovation Vitality Report Winning Innovation Starts Before Launch Brands that invest in true innov
Klarna Now Available on Apple Pay to Customers in France and Italy9.12.2025 12:49:00 EET | Press release
Klarna, the global digital bank and flexible payments provider, has made its flexible payment products available when checking out on Apple Pay in France and Italy. Millions of eligible shoppers can now choose Klarna at checkout online and in-app using their iPhone and iPad, or in-store using their iPhone, and this innovative capability delivers even more convenience, control, and transparency to even more customers. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251209410835/en/ The continued expansion follows strong consumer adoption and momentum in Denmark, Spain, Sweden, the U.S., UK and Canada, where Klarna’s flexible payment options have become a popular way to pay with Apple Pay. With today’s launch, consumers across eight major markets can now choose to shop with Klarna through Apple Pay’s simple and secure experience, and consumers have more choice and flexibility in how they can pay. “We’ve seen incredible exciteme
DNP Achieves 10nm Line Pattern Resolution on Nanoimprint Template for Cutting-Edge Semiconductors9.12.2025 12:12:00 EET | Press release
Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP, TOKYO:7912) today announced the development of a nanoimprint lithography (NIL) template featuring a circuit line width of 10 nanometers (nm: 10-9 meter). The new template enables patterning for logic semiconductors equivalent to the 1.4nm generation and meets the miniaturization needs of cutting-edge logic semiconductors. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251208175160/en/ Template for nanoimprint Background and Aims In line with the shift to more sophisticated devices seen in recent years, demands have emerged for even greater miniaturization in cutting-edge semiconductors, leading to advances in Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV) lithography-based production. EUV lithography, however, requires substantial capital investment, energy consumption, and operating costs in building production lines and the exposure process. Since 2003, DNP has been developing NIL templates and has successf
Reply Achieves the AWS Agentic AI Specialization and Is Named an Implementation Partner for Amazon Bedrock AgentCore9.12.2025 11:47:00 EET | Press release
Reply [EXM, STAR: REY] announced that it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Agentic AI Specialization, a new category within the AWS AI Competency. This recognition positions Reply and its companies specialized in AWS technologies - Data Reply and Storm Reply - among the AWS Partners able to help customers deploy smart, self-operating AI systems that can think, plan, and act autonomously to execute complex business processes. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251209601808/en/ Through Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, organizations can simplify and secure the development of intelligent agents at scale, interact with enterprise systems, analyze data in real time, and automate complex processes. The specialization further strengthens Reply’s long-standing expertise in AWS technologies and its ability to deliver production-ready autonomous AI systems based on Amazon Bedrock Agents and AWS-native frameworks, enabling
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