Offshore wind is expanding rapidly, yet almost every turbine still depends on diesel-powered support vessels. Today, ZESTAs is proud to announce that Tidal Transit has joined the association to help change that reality.
For more than a decade, Tidal Transit has worked in one of the most demanding operational environments in the maritime sector: transporting technicians and equipment between shore and turbine sites in the North Sea. Few companies understand the daily energy requirements, weather constraints, and operational rhythms of offshore wind as directly as they do.
That experience is now being redirected toward electrified offshore operations, starting with the e-Ginny—the world’s first diesel-to-electric conversion of a crew transfer vessel (CTV). The project, developed with ZESTAs member MJR Power & Automation, is demonstrating how an existing workboat can be rebuilt for a future where offshore support no longer depends on combustion at all.
Madadh MacLaine, Secretary-General of ZESTAs, said:
“Offshore wind is often presented as a clean sector, but the vessels moving people and equipment every day still run on fossil fuels. Tidal Transit is addressing that gap head-on. Their decision to convert a working CTV to full battery-electric power cuts through the claims and focuses on what delivers: a vessel that does the job without producing emissions.”
Rather than waiting for newbuild programmes to reach commercial scale, Tidal Transit has taken a retrofit-first approach: upgrade what exists, eliminate the emissions, and accelerate learning that will feed directly into future fully electric or hydrogen-electric offshore support vessels.
Leo Hambro, Commercial Director at Tidal Transit, said:
“The offshore wind industry has reached a transition moment where the green electricity produced can be efficiently used to propel the vessels that service it. The continued burning of fossil fuels contradicts the very purpose of harnessing renewable wind power.”
Tidal Transit’s membership strengthens ZESTAs’ work on Absolute Zero Emissions Ecosystems, where offshore wind is a critical early-market for battery-electric, hydrogen-electric, and wind-assist technologies. Their operational insight—from charging cycles to technician transfer patterns—will support ZESTAs’ members developing the vessels, energy systems, and port infrastructure needed for fully zero-emission offshore logistics.
