County and Port of Friday Harbor consider plan for all-electric interisland ferries

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, June 24, 2026

San Juan County and the Port of Friday Harbor are considering a proposal to put a small fleet of all-electric passenger ferries into service between the islands and the mainland, an effort aimed squarely at the kinds of trips that fall through the cracks of the Washington State Ferries schedule: students who get stranded, County employees who can’t get to work and islanders who need to reach medical appointments in Bellingham.

Port of Friday Harbor Director Todd Nicholson said the idea grew directly out of work the Port has already been doing with Photon Marine, the Seattle-based electric propulsion company that is supplying the motors for four new electric workboats the Port ordered with a $7 million Climate Commitment Act grant. That grant is also paying for fast-charging infrastructure, shore power, an electric travel lift and a solar canopy at the Port’s boatyard.

“We worked together with Photon on the original ferry concept,” Nicholson said, “in the same way that we worked together on our previous grant.”

He and Photon built an early planning document around an interisland route, shaped by problems he said the County was already trying to solve: school kids unable to get to and from the islands, County workers getting stranded and what he called “the Bellingham doctor’s appointment problem.”

The Port itself, however, did not have the bandwidth to apply for one of the federal passenger ferry grants on its own last year, Nicholson said. When the County later identified the same transportation gap and began reviewing other proposals — one of which he described as carrying significant cost risk — he shared the Port and Photon’s approach as an alternative.

Council member Justin Paulsen, in an interview with the Sounder, commented that, “The County is in receipt of the Port’s proposal and is looking at it.”

Nicholson was careful to note that the Port of Friday Harbor’s three-member commission has not authorized the Port to independently pursue the grant or build out the ferry system, and that he does not want to be seen as the project’s decision-maker.

As envisioned, the system would run two to three vessels carrying roughly 18 to 22 passengers each, built around 40 feet long — modern, semi-displacement catamarans rather than true foiling boats, which Nicholson said are riskier in waters with floating logs and marine traffic. Cruising speeds would land in the low 20-knot range, only modestly faster than the state ferries’ 17 to 18 knots. Nicholson favors a network of several smaller boats over one or two large vessels, arguing it spreads out risk, keeps crewing and infrastructure costs down, and means a single mechanical problem doesn’t take down the whole system. Charging infrastructure would need to be built in Bellingham and at a handful of strategically chosen islands, through some mix of County investment and partnerships with private landowners.

Nicholson does not see the plan as competition for Washington State Ferries. The routes would largely serve trips the ferry system doesn’t reliably cover, he said, and he expects the Legislature and ferry system to be supportive rather than resistant, given how often state officials hear complaints when ferry service is disrupted. The service would run on a schedule and fee structure, unlike the unscheduled charter trips some private operators currently offer between the islands and the mainland.

The funding case leans heavily on the program’s climate benefits. Nicholson said an all-electric fleet running daily, year-round, would remove far more carbon from the system, dollar for dollar, than diesel or gas-powered alternatives, or than islanders driving to Bellingham after a ferry crossing. Given that the $7 million Climate Commitment Act grant the Port already received was the largest awarded statewide, he believes a similarly sized investment in passenger ferries could become “the most clearly demonstrable win” the Climate Commitment Act has produced. State funding, he added, has proven far more attainable than federal grants, which are difficult for a small island economy to qualify for.

His goal, he said, is a program funded entirely through state and federal grants — covering vessels, infrastructure and operations — that costs the County nothing out of pocket, tested over five to 10 years. Before recommending anyone “pull the trigger,” he wants certainty that the program would be cash-neutral even with minimal ridership, so it doesn’t shift costs onto taxpayers if ridership falls short of projections.

If the County decides to pursue a Climate Commitment Act carveout, potentially paired with a federal grant, Nicholson estimated the system could be running within two to three years.