Page 40: of Marine News Magazine (July 2018)

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PROPULSION

T e ABB Electric Tow Boat

Beckons to Inland Operators

Long a staple for of shore service providers, a more compact and carefully designed version of the diesel electric option is now available for inland pushboats. For budget conscious operators (and who isn’t, in this environment?), the stars may f nally be aligned.

(*) All images courtesy ABB

By Joseph Keefe or many years, electric propulsion has proven to be new technologies when it makes business sense. Sometimes, a viable propulsion solution for many different types new regulations can have way of speeding up that process. of vessels. Most familiar to workboat stakeholders Indeed, the new rules have major cost implications for own-

F would be the advent of the ‘diesel electric’ offshore serve ers looking to build new vessels, concurrent with the reality providers (OSV) that became commonplace during the of an aging river