Re: [Electric Boats] EV storage tech and trends - market

H Julian - The equation for EV in your case makes sense - maybe.

ICE in diesel (or gas) is a dense power source. Low mass and high output
and power, ie kWhr.
Its relatively expensive, and getting more expensive.
Electricity (generation, ot source, bulk cost) is cheap, and possibly
getting very cheap (PV)-and you have access to cheap power.

Battery storage, otoh, is not dense and is expensive in money and so-so
in mass, with the best battery tech. at point in this time - lithium
batteries.

If your spend is thousands per month you can probably or possiby
contemplate spending a years cost in batteries.
This would allow you to have sufficient storage for true electric
propulsion- and maybe 90% (or more) reduced ongoing costs.

Transporting 12 people *in an efficient hull* 10 km back and forth every
day is easily achieved.
In a non-efficient hull it is likely prohibitively expensive. The
difference is likely about 4-fold or more. It can be ten fold.

IF you need, eg. 15 kW, for 40 minutes, thats about 10 kWhr.
Back and forth thats 20 kWhr. Add 10% reserve, thats 22 kWhr.
A 22 kWhr battery bank is likely about 25k$ - so -so.

Note the conditionals and efficiency part.
A non-efficient hull, and high speed (losses) can make the cost ten fold
easily.
This would mean a heavy, large and unwieldy battery (220 kWhr) - not
currently feasible.

Otoh - 22 kWhr of power is likely only about 30 Hp engine power used for
the same 40 minutes.
This will be only maybe 10 l of gas - about 15$ US I think ?
Thats only 450$ per month.
Paying a 25k$ battery takes about 60 months. Probably not (necessarily)
economical.

As per before-
If you have an economical hull and transport - EV may make sense.
If you have an un-economical hull and transport mode, EV at todays cost
is not yet practical.

Systems efficiency / power/ capacity / cost is going up 20-40% year/year.
Thus within 2-4 years some to many systems will make sense.
It is very likely, within 4-5 years most systems will start to make
economical sense.
It is also very, very likely within 10 years mainstream boating will
start to use EV propulsion, as long as battery tech improves as it has done.

EV tech is rapidly developing, and several billions are spent on
research yearly.
The market is already multi-billion, with hundreds of companies in the
field.
It is certain that one or more technologies will at some point change
the current battery storage density/cost equation significantly.
At least 3-6 different technologies have been tested in labs, with 3-5
fold improvements in capacity/cost.
This is more than enough for leisure boating, and for a lot of
commercial use as well.

There is a trillion € prize for the first company to solve the storage
problem or significantly improve on current tech- a fact not lost on
investors, researchers and companies in the field.
Given that many EV fields are already commercially profitable on current
tech basis means work will go on, no matter what.

Leisure boating uses large amount of power, very very seldom.
Thus it is an ideal medium for EV if economical *or* dense-and-light,
independent of cost, long term storage can be found.
Usually, yacht (and sailboat) engines are used less than 1% of time.
Mostly a lot less.


On 29/12/2013 11:57, Julian Webb wrote:
> That would be a 12 passenger vessel hopefully attaining a 10 kt.
> cruise for a min 2 hour run time as it takes about 40 min. @ 10 kt. to
> get to town one way.
> Electric makes sense for us because we produce our own hydro
> electricity via Pelton wheel and we spend thousands on fuel each month
> to run our small fleet of boats.



------------------------------------

Yahoo Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electricboats/

<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electricboats/join
(Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
electricboats-digest@yahoogroups.com
electricboats-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
electricboats-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo Groups is subject to:
http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/