Electric Ships

[NeilBlanchard]

This is great to see - electric ferries:

Fully Charged Presents Electric Ferry With 4.1 MWh Battery: Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE_M1n-ClOA

[MetroMPG]

Not what I was expecting -- that's a big ship.


Range: 14 km!

Capacity to do 3.5 crossings, theoretically. But they charge while at the dock between every crossing to manage the battery state of charge for long battery life.

I like the robot arm that handles the charging connection.

[oil pan 4]

I think that's the world's biggest plug in hybrid.

[redpoint5]

Don't have time to watch at the moment. Can someone summarize the facts, such as how many kW it recharges at, peak HP of the motors, etc.

I'd hate to pay the demand charge for that hookup.

[wdb]

Seems like a great application for volts vs HP. Short run at high power, frequent recharges. Interestingly it appears to *not* be a project slathered in tax dollars but rather a business economy driven choice.

[oil pan 4]

Looks like it charges with 3 phase 10 to 10.5kv at around 150kw.
The battery holds 4.1 megawatt hours, should pay for its self in about 8 years if fuel prices don't go up (ha!) and last at least 15 years.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

My ship gets better fuel economy than your Prius! --except we know that comparing electricity with gasoline is apples and oranges.

Sounds like a good idea. I didn't watch the whole video, while docked between trips is it able to charge back up enough to make up for the electricity expended on the trip?

[NeilBlanchard]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Looks like it charges with 3 phase 10 to 10.5kv at around 150kw.
The battery holds 4.1 megawatt hours, should pay for its self in about 8 years if fuel prices don't go up (ha!) and last at least 15 years.

And it has four 1.5Mw motors - two aft and two in the front. It is very quiet and very smooth.

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

My ship gets better fuel economy than your Prius! --except we know that comparing electricity with gasoline is apples and oranges.

Sounds like a good idea. I didn't watch the whole video, while docked between trips is it able to charge back up enough to make up for the electricity expended on the trip?

A gallon of gasoline is equivalent to 33.7kWh of electricity. So these ships have the equivalent of 121.66 gallons of gasoline.

Yes, they can sustain the battery levels between 40% and 67% charge (if my memory serves) by charging for about 5 minutes on one stop, and about 13 minutes at the other stop.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by wdb

Seems like a great application for volts vs HP. Short run at high power, frequent recharges. Interestingly it appears to *not* be a project slathered in tax dollars but rather a business economy driven choice.

Most of the best innovations have been economically driven, and not policy driven.

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Looks like it charges with 3 phase 10 to 10.5kv at around 150kw.
The battery holds 4.1 megawatt hours, should pay for its self in about 8 years if fuel prices don't go up (ha!) and last at least 15 years.

The guy said 600 amps, so that would be 6 mW of charging. It would have to be that high if it's going to replace 75 kWh in 5-10 minutes of charging.

He also said the expected lifespan of the battery is 5 years.

The savings will accrue in lower maintenance costs as well as fuel saved.

It would be neat to see what is possible if a ship is purpose built as an EV rather than a retrofitted diesel series hybrid.

[oil pan 4]

5 year battery life sucks.
But I guess unlike most electric vehicles it's always either charging or driving, no sitting around.

I thought 150kw was really light for charging. I was at a tire shop when I watched it and it was kind of noisy there so I may not have been able to hear correctly.