by DCN » Fri Jun 18, 2021 11:23 am
I don't know if any fleet has taken a serious look into an all electric laker. I have often thought that the lakes would be a good place to pioneer such technology in a large vessel as even the longest runs are shorter than most ocean voyages and so the opportunity to dock and recharge batteries, or refuel hydrogen for fuel cells, would be much more frequent. However, like all major technology changes of this sort it is having the support infrastructure that is usually the major hold up. Well, that and the cost of course.
What has been done on the lakes in the past is diesel/electric or steam turbine/electric propulsion. I believe United States Steel back in the 1960s took a pair of their boats that were near identical and put in a diesel/electric plant in on and a mechanical diesel plant in the other to determine which propulsion method was "better" for their needs. I think Al Miller wrote a bit about this in his book "Tin Stackers". Somebody more familiar about this than me will probably remember what boats were involved. There have also been several other something/electric lakers over the years but at the moment I don't believe there are any in operation.
In my mind I have always thought that these kind of paradigm shifts in technology need to be done incrementally to catch on in a big way. For example perhaps the first step would be to install a battery or fuel cell bank that would replace the generators that are used when the main engines are shut down. If a fleet can make it work where they are all electric for everything but main propulsion, and the crews are happy and comfortable with it, then maybe they would take a chance and go all out with an entirely electric boat.
Just my thoughts.
DCN
I don't know if any fleet has taken a serious look into an all electric laker. I have often thought that the lakes would be a good place to pioneer such technology in a large vessel as even the longest runs are shorter than most ocean voyages and so the opportunity to dock and recharge batteries, or refuel hydrogen for fuel cells, would be much more frequent. However, like all major technology changes of this sort it is having the support infrastructure that is usually the major hold up. Well, that and the cost of course.
What has been done on the lakes in the past is diesel/electric or steam turbine/electric propulsion. I believe United States Steel back in the 1960s took a pair of their boats that were near identical and put in a diesel/electric plant in on and a mechanical diesel plant in the other to determine which propulsion method was "better" for their needs. I think Al Miller wrote a bit about this in his book "Tin Stackers". Somebody more familiar about this than me will probably remember what boats were involved. There have also been several other something/electric lakers over the years but at the moment I don't believe there are any in operation.
In my mind I have always thought that these kind of paradigm shifts in technology need to be done incrementally to catch on in a big way. For example perhaps the first step would be to install a battery or fuel cell bank that would replace the generators that are used when the main engines are shut down. If a fleet can make it work where they are all electric for everything but main propulsion, and the crews are happy and comfortable with it, then maybe they would take a chance and go all out with an entirely electric boat.
Just my thoughts.
DCN