Sunday, July 5, 2009

[Electric Boats] Hornblower hybrid



I took my daughter up to see the fireworks in Sausalito and on the way there we stopped at the public dock on the Embarcadero - which also happens to be the dock for Hornblower's hybrid ferry. It's more or less a conventional looking motor cat - except for 2 10-foot 1.2KW (nominal) wind turbine mounted on deck. I thought at first they were Darius designs - but when you look closely you see there is a plexiglas helix inside the rotors. On top, though not visible, is also a solar array.

I spoke with one of the crew members briefly and he says they routinely get 3KW (1.5ea) from the turbines. He said the motors on this hybrid were adapted from tunnel-boring equipment

I've tried to discover the brand/design name for the turbines and haven't been able to. Does this description ring a bell? They are vertical axis turbines with vertical rotors, and the aforementioned interior helix (it's supported by a steel spiral inside the rotors as well) - as I mentioned they look like conventional Darius turbines, but only 2 rotors.

Thx

-Keith

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