T-Pain Is On A Boat: Re: [Electric Boats] B2G TECHNOLOGY: IS THAR GOLD IN THEM THAR HULLS?

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Re: [Electric Boats] B2G TECHNOLOGY: IS THAR GOLD IN THEM THAR HULLS?

Eric:

Certainly good points. But, unused solar and wind generators sitting on boats in marinas is still wasted energy IMO. I think it will also depend on how the technology shakes out in the end. It may not be practical for sailors like me whose boat lives on a mooring and use the boat to get away from land as much as possible. But, someone who uses their electric pontoon boat on a lake only on weekends and is docked during the week. They might benefit. If B2G technology becomes part of the "smart grid" concept that we keep hearing about it might come to fruition a lot sooner. Marinas for example might offer dockage discounts to electric boats equipt with B2G technology because it will help reduce their operating costs. I agree that the solar panels will not replace a Honda 2000i generator in power production but, if I already have the panels on board and my are batteries topped up. Which happens often on my boat. I'd be glad to sell the excess power to the utility if I could. The same goes for my wind generator. I'd even let them use my battery bank as long as I can control how much I want them to discharge them and the price is right. In the end there will be a lot of factors from government regulation (and maybe tax incentatives), costs of the B2G control electronics, battery storage technology and utility infrastructure but, I see only an upside for us who own electric boats in B2G technology. As the saying goes "We've got the power!" It may not be a lot compared to a utility generating plant but, it but, every little bit helps especialy during peak demand times.

Capt. Mike

http://biankablog.blogspot.

--- On Tue, 3/2/10, Eric <ewdysar@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Eric <ewdysar@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Electric Boats] B2G TECHNOLOGY: IS THAR GOLD IN THEM THAR HULLS?
To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, March 2, 2010, 9:58 PM

So let's do little math. We'll assume that the electric utility will buy back electricity at the same rate that you pay for it and that the boat has 400W of solar panels on board. If the boat is really idle, then it might generate 2 kWh on a good day. Then the day is worth 34 cents. Multiply this by 30 days (assuming perfect weather and no usage of the boat) and in a month the boat will have earned it's owner $10 in electric generation by providing 60 kWh back into the grid.

Looking at the assumptions, Southern California credits grid tie energy at 1 to 1 against electricity used from the grid, they do it with one meter and spin it backwards when you're providing energy into the grid. Months with negative readings get rolled over, but won't carry over from one year to the next. The billed total cannot go below 0 kWh in the 12 month cycle related to the specific meter. A standard connection must still be paid monthly. So the best case scenario is that the utility bill would drop to the connection fee and no charges for electricity would be billed over the course of a year.

I don't know of many people with 400W of panels on their boat, certainly less than 1% of the boats in our marina (with 6000 slips, it's the largest non-commercial boat marina in the world). I would be surprised if 10% could generate 1 kWh of excess electricity on a good day. So its more likely that only 10% of the boats could provide about 30 kWh/month to the grid. My 2 bedroom house averages less than 20 kWh per day including A/C in the summer time. I don't think that my winter usage ever falls below 10 kWh/day. So if 10 over-paneled boats signed up, they could cover my winter usage, it would take 20 boats to cover my annual average.

I think that problem with this idea is the scale, there's a lot of infrastructure and ongoing management to invest for a relative small return. I doubt that the utility company would consider the program worth the effort.

Fair winds,
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA

--- In electricboats@ yahoogroups. com, Hans Kloepfer <hanskloepfer@ ...> wrote:
>
> I think that B2G tech in a marina is a great idea. I could imagine a model that has some potential for my marina.
>
> My current marina has individual meters at each dock box. We pay the hefty commercial rate for power. I want to say 17 cents per kWH. We don't pay the utility company though. We pay the marina for power and they are the ones who pay the utility company bill....
> By the way, my marina is applying for some kind of "green marina certification" I think there is probably a state subsidy behind this so they may have motivation.
>
> Hans