San Francisco Bay Ferry Commissions 12-Megawatt-Hour Battery Charging Pier at Alameda Seaplane Lagoon Terminal

Marine engineers with the Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA), operator of San Francisco Bay Ferry, and clean-energy specialists from Alameda Municipal Power commissioned a 12-megawatt-hour (MWh) shore-side lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery storage plant and a dual-cord 4.5-megawatt Megawatt Charging System (MCS) berth on Sunday afternoon at the Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal at 1901 Ferry Point at Alameda Point. Serving thousands of daily transbay commuters traveling between Alameda's former naval air station and the Downtown San Francisco Ferry Building in twenty minutes, the high-power charging pier is a cornerstone of WETA's Rapid Electric Emission-Free (REEF) ferry program.

Inside a flood-elevated architectural enclosure just inland from the passenger gangway plaza, eight liquid-cooled battery containers continuously draw 100 percent carbon-free municipal electricity from Alameda Municipal Power at a steady 900-kilowatt rate, avoiding costly underwater distribution cable upgrades across the Oakland Estuary. When a 400-passenger battery-electric catamaran docks at the Seaplane Lagoon float, an automated articulated cable-management boom extends two liquid-cooled 1,500-volt DC MCS plugs to the vessel's port-side charging manifold.

During a ten-minute passenger disembarkation and boarding window, the shore-side battery bank transfers 750 kilowatt-hours of propulsion energy—enough for a complete round-trip transbay crossing at 27 knots—before retracting automatically. The 12-MWh plant also serves as an emergency microgrid hub for WETA's adjacent Ron Cowan Operations and Maintenance Facility during a regional earthquake.

The $13.8 million maritime charging facility was funded through California State Transportation Agency TIRCP grants and Federal Transit Administration ferry funds. Sailing schedules are posted on the San Francisco Bay Ferry Official Portal.