News
Good bye diesel drive
Press release of the passenger navigation of 25.10.2022
Good bye diesel propulsion on the Sauerland-Seen: Conversion to innovative propulsion on the
Sorpesee and new ship at Hennesee
Complete Sauerland fleet will be fully electric and thus completely CO2-neutral on the four reservoirs in the future. The diesel engines of all six ships will be replaced by electric drives. At Sorpesee, the conversion already started yesterday.
Two days after the end of the season, the conversion of the passenger ship MS Sorpesee began yesterday. The diesel drive has been replaced. Over the winter months the season break is used
used, in order to let the ship drive starting from spring fully electrically. At Biggesee and Möhnesee, where two ships each are operated, the engine replacement is expected to follow at the end of 2023.
"We have now been approved for funding for all ships in the Sauerland. Now we hope that no further supply bottlenecks will unnecessarily delay a conversion in the winter of next year," says Wolfgang Keseberg, managing director of Lux-Werft und Schifffahrt GmbH. If everything works out as desired, the new "green fleet" would run completely CO2-neutral on eco-electricity as early as 2024 and make a decisive contribution to "sustainable tourism" in the Sauerland.
Hennesee
Contrary to initial plans, the Hennesee passenger ship will be leaving the lake for good in the next few days - in its place, a larger, modern new building will be coming to Meschede. The old lady is still waiting in Meschede for land transport to the Lux shipyard in Mondorf near Bonn. The season was abruptly ended in September because of the low level of stowage on the Hennesee. The shipyard was concerned that the ship could no longer be pulled onto the slipway if the water continued to sink. Due to urgent overhaul work, action was taken. Since then, the MS Hennesee has been standing on land awaiting transport to the shipyard in Mondorf on the Rhine. Several road construction sites in the Sauerland and the Rhineland have delayed the heavy transport so far. In addition to overhaul work, conversion to a fully electric drive system is also planned at the shipyard.
However, the ship will then not return to Sauerland. "Since operations at the
Hennesee has developed very positively, we decided to build a new and larger ship for the site in Meschede," explains Wolfgang Keseberg. At the shipyard, the
engineers at the shipyard are in the planning stage, so that further details on the new ship
will follow. Nevertheless, the keel laying is to take place soon with the construction number 229. "With the new
ship, we will be looking for a good mix of character between a fully electric excursion steamer during the day and an event ship in the evening," promises Wolfgang Keseberg. In recent years, the ship has been "bursting at the seams" on certain days, says Lux boss Wolfgang Keseberg, who once steered the MS Hennesee himself on Lake Biggesee still under the old name MS Westfalen.
For the info box:
The conversion of the ship on Lake Sorpesee has already begun. The diesel engine and
fuel tank are giving way to an electric drive and batteries. The passenger ship MS Hennesee was built in 1969 and is thus the oldest of the six ships in the Sauerland fleet. It was initially in service for ten years as "MS Westfalen" on Lake Biggesee. Since 1979, the 32.5-meter-long and 6.1-meter-wide excursion steamer, which was constructed under construction number 34 at the Lux shipyard in Niederkassel-Mondorf, has been sailing on Lake Hennesee. In more than half a century, the ship has been modernized several times. Now it is being replaced by an innovative new building.
Press contact: Wolfgang Keseberg, managing director Lux shipyard and shipping GmbH,
Tel. 0171 6734275
Sustainable tourism: Customers with a 9-euro ticket receive a discount on the boat trip on Lake Biggesee
Press release of the Biggesee passenger shipping company from 31.05.2022
Arrival by local transport to be promoted in the long term Passenger shipping on Lake Biggesee offers holders of a valid 9-euro ticket a
discount of one euro on the daily 90-minute boat trip. Even before the climate package, the company was moving toward sustainable tourism.
The lake station in Olpe-Sondern has good connections to the main source region in the Ruhrgebiet. From Dortmund, Essen or Bochum, it is enough to change trains in Finnentrop, and from there the Biggesee Express will take you directly to the ship's dock. At present, the train journey does not take much longer than the journey by car from the Ruhrgebiet.
Individual traffic has to put up with detours and traffic jams because of the closed A45 bridge. With the discount on the 9-euro ticket, the Biggesee passenger shipping company would like to encourage its guests to think and point out the alternative journey by local transport. Against presentation of the 9-Euro-Ticket there is a Euro discount on the boat trip at the box office. This applies to both adults (13 instead of 14 euros) and children (6 instead of 7 euros). The 9-euro ticket must be valid in the respective month and presented with a photo ID.
A KombiTicket is to be introduced on a permanent basis
Even before the announcement of the climate package and the 9-Euro-Ticket, the Personenschifffahrt Biggesee developed the idea of a KombiTicket. The decisive factor was the impeded arrival of guests by car due to the bridge closure in Lüdenscheid. Together with partners from the South Sauerland Tourism Network, the company considered alternative transport connections. In the future, it would be desirable if guests could buy a ticket online in advance and thus have free travel on the day of validity for the outward and return journey by local transport.
The concept has been used successfully for years at major events and Bundesliga matches.
Talks are currently underway at various levels with the Sauerland Tourism Association (Tourismus-Verband Sauerland e.V.) and the state and federal governments about possible funding for a pilot project. "Overall, we want to further strengthen our sustainability credentials as a company in a nature experience area," explains operations manager Nicole Keseberg. In the coming year, the flagship MS Westfalen will also travel across Lake Biggesee fully electrically and thus CO2-neutral. Diesel propulsion will then have had its day.
A press release of the Biggesee passenger shipping company from 15.12.2021
Emission-free across the Sauerland-Sees
Lux shipyard relies on electric propulsion on lakes Bigge, Henne and Sorpesee
After half a century, the combustion engine has had its day on the Sauerland lakes: Lux-Werft und Schifffahrt GmbH will convert its fleet to all-electric propulsion. In the future, the company will follow the trend towards climate-neutral mobility and sail emission-free across the Bigge, Sorpe and Hennesee lakes.
Due to supply bottlenecks, however, the plan is being postponed for a season. "The time is now ripe," says Dr. Rainer Miebach, managing director of Lux-Werft in Mondorf near Bonn. "Being sustainable, clean and as climate-friendly as possible is not only one of our corporate values, but also one of the trends of modern tourism." He added that the shipping industry was thus also making a contribution and providing an opportunity for the Sauerland vacation region.
Despite pandemic-related declines in sales, the family-owned company will invest in climate-friendly propulsion technology for its Sauerland fleet, he said. The rapid development of the technology now fulfills the prerequisite for unrestricted and economical operation, he said. The funding call won by the
Federal Ministry of Transport has now accelerated this step even further.
Supply bottlenecks mean that conversion will not be possible until the winter of 2022/2023 The shipbuilding engineer has been pushing the pace in recent months and is now being thwarted. The internal plan to operate shipping on the lakes with green energy as early as the 2022 season will not work out. "As in many other industries, suppliers are experiencing delivery bottlenecks," reports Dr. Rainer Miebach, "in some cases we have delivery times of more than 20 weeks for various electronic parts." So the conversion will now take place during the 2022/2023 winter break.
Speaking of batteries: The flagship from the Biggesee, the 54-meter-long and almost twelve-meter-wide MS Westfalen with a capacity of up to 750 people on board, is swapping its 10,000-liter diesel tank for 20 tons of batteries, which will be charged at night at the berth in Sondern. This means that daytime operations can be secured. The energy source electricity is more expensive than diesel. On the other hand, the maintenance and repair costs for operation with electric motors are significantly lower. "And the motor has better efficiency and controls more precisely," says the managing director, citing just one advantage. Many lubricants are eliminated - the bottom line is that operating costs increase minimally, but the carbon footprint is very good.
Green electricity instead of diesel: 166 tons of CO² saved on the MS Westfalen.
To remain in the Bigge-Listertal nature conservation and experience area, Dr. Rainer Miebach's calculation resonates with a certain pride: "We will save around 166 tons of CO² a year with the MS Westfalen." For the smaller ships at Sorpesee and Hennesee, the CO² savings are around 110 and 80 tons, respectively. All three ships will be powered exclusively by green electricity from the 2023 season. The gallery ship on Lake Möhnesee and the docking ship MS Körbecke as well as MS Bigge are also to be converted to electric propulsion at a later date.
As part of the conversion of the ship's propulsion system, additional investments will also be made in the visual appearance and the concept will be optimized to meet the needs of today's passengers. "The image as an excursion steamer is to be laid ad-acta. We will turn passenger shipping into the modern, sustainable experience shipping concept," says
Nicole Keseberg as head of Biggesee shipping. Together with your team and the leaseholders of the other three Sauerland-Seen, concepts for the Post-Corona period are currently being developed