Page 54: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2020)

WORKBOAT PROPULSION: BATTERIES

Brent Perry & his Sterling

PBES team are

CHARGING

AHEAD

Photo: Sterling PBES

Brent Perry, CEO of Sterling PBES is a 40+ year veteran of the marine business, and one of the pioneers in delivering battery

By Greg Trauthwein solutions to boats and ships at sea. storage in some shape or form. Initially

Please give us a by the numbers look versus a land-based industry?

it was ferries and tugboats that had the You have some application challenges at Sterling PBES today?

Right now we are sitting in a posi- practical application and made ? nancial in that marine tends to run 24/7/365. tion where we had anticipated deliver- sense. That’s now expanded to the point So you can’t transfer a car technology ing somewhere in the neighborhood of where a good portion of our business into the marine industry. The user re- $20-21 million worth of product, which is being made up of blue water carri- quirement, the service requirement, the is about 35 megawatt hours. And we’re ers. I’m the chairman of Zero Emis- uptime requirement is signi? cantly dif- scheduled to blow past that to almost sions Shipping Technology Association ferent and that requires another level $40 million. And we’re looking at the (ZESTA), and our role is to help in? u- of execution at the engineering stage. following year as a year of over a $100 ence IMO with sustainable legislation. The other is that, to be perfectly blunt, million, maybe $120 million with about Basically we’re creating metrics within nobody needs a battery. A battery by it- a quarter of that already committed to- IMO that ships are going to be graded self is just an element. And ship owners day. on their environmental contribution or and operators and ? eet managers today their environmental impact, with freight aren’t looking to become experts in en- rates decided by environmental impact ergy storage, they want to buy a solution.

Put in perspective the pace of ac- too. So bringing in the power electronics, celeration of change you see on the

AC or DC, the batteries, the fuel cells, uptake of new battery technology?

What are some of the unique chal-

Today 80% of the vessels that are un- the new fuel structures that everybody’s lenges within the marine industry der design consideration include energy looking at and packaging them up into 54 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • November 2020

MR #11 (50-65).indd 54 11/9/2020 11:33:25 AM