Shall you retrofit or build your yacht or superyacht with electric propulsion?
Carmine Giuseppe Biancardi
Coach and Consultant | Chartered Engineer, Fellow and PE
My suggestion is YES, go for retrofit or build your yacht with electric propulsion, but please make engineering at the center of your project.
On the market there is a large number of electric motors, both outboards and inboards from 1kw to a few 100sKw, however owners, naval architects, ship designers, ship yards, sailors are confused…..
Indeed, while prices are very attractive and electric motors are indeed the TODAY solution, ENGINEERING stay central, and to achieve the proper installation to retrofit a yacht or to build a new one, you need the proper engineering.
However, e-motors are just one part of such a system, high capacity-light and long life batteries are needs, chargers and inverters, as well as generators and other energy generators such as solar, Aeolian or wavers.
Batteries are not a problem anymore, technologies and cost are very challenging and a number of projects have been launched lately.
Nevertheless, a number of people ask about the electric propulsion but are not ready to get into the engineering process. Without it, even a small project is at a risk of failure, and in any case the investment in engineering is a small fraction of your investment and you shall get into in to your return of investment in a very few years.
When some “experts” will tell you that it is an “experimentation” don’t listen them, unfortunately they don’t know the engineering and don’t hold the know-how and experiences for doing the right job, so they prefer telling you that is not feasible.
Finally, don’t forget that e-propulsion has a minimized if not at all maintenance, saving you a large quantity of money. Usually a serious e-propulsion system lasts about 10 years and batteries an average of 7 years.
So feel confident and talk with the right people.
www.streurope.com
Retired (Self-employed) Yachting enthusiast
9 年I have a problem with diesel/electric in my new build 40m yacht. I am an ecologist and look for true green solutions not greenwashing. I also insist on a reasonable additional cost for an Eco solution. What I have found is how I can multiply my propulsion budget by at least 2 fold or more. No, I am not willing to do that. When prices come down I am interested. At this time their is no financial sense in D/E for my power range of 300kw.
Vorstrom LLC
9 年Great post! I have in my portfolio azimuth drives from 3 kW to 2 megawatt. If you need bigger, you have to go to ABB or Rolls Royce, but even there is always room for improvement, isn't it? Let's cooperate.
Retired at Retired
9 年PS. Hydrogenisis will be looking for distributors if you would like to register your interest.