Page 56: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2016)

ALTERNATIVE MARINE DRIVES (Image Courtesy NSB Group) (Photo Courtesy NSB Group) number of competitive advantages. companies still swear today by conven- electrical ship propulsions with high ies, a big 2GW power station must run

Some traditional statements, that elec- tional, mechanical propulsion systems. power. Not only that they are consuming under full-load conditions for about 15 trical ship propulsion system are work- The decisive in? uence on a growing use reduced fuel compared to mechanical hours, making it unrealistic for an ef? - ing with a poor degree of utilization, i.e. of electrical drive systems had the devel- drives, they are also substantially more cient port operation.

combined with signi? cantly higher loss- opment of the semiconductor technol- ‘environmentally-friendly.’ But hybrid-drives would be a realistic es than mechanical drive systems, and ogy during the last two decades. At this The fully electric powertrain for ships option in the future.

thus are only currently used in special time existed only components for just a with the todays existing battery technol- During the voyage the vessel operates cases, can be referred to as “technically few hundred kW – but today are units ogy is entirely illusory. Lead accumula- on heavy fuel and before the entrance in outdated”. This insight is not new. of several thousand kW available. With tors are too big and too heavy, Li-Ion special (ECAs) areas or ports, the opera-

This has not yet properly managed this, combined with an intelligent split batteries are too expensive. The required tion will be done electrically and thus to establish its position in the maritime of the on-board required energy among energy of a large VLCC container vessel with low-emissions. The required neces- economy. Well-known cruise shipping several gensets, it is possible to realize is about 30GWh. To charge these batter- sary battery capacity is acceptable and 56 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • MAY 2016

MR #5 (50-57) V2.indd 56 5/5/2016 2:42:03 PM