Battery powered boats used to be only a child's bathtub toy. China says, not this ship.

A new all-electric cargo ship with a massive 2.4 MWh battery pack launches in China

Ground transport is currently leading the transition to electric propulsion, but maritime transport is now starting to see its share of electrification. We have recently reported on several large ferries going all-electric and now a massive cargo ship in China has been officially launched with a battery powertrain.

 Me, "While it might sound odd to move a cargo ship with electricity, it is actually a brilliant idea.Think of the size of a cargo ship. You can have solar panels running the length and sides of the cargo ship, recharging the battery. Also, think of it with a transmission. That reduces the power needs of an electric motor and the the size of the battery. And since an electric motor can operate at higher speeds there is the possibility of decreasing the time it takes to get cargo to ports.There is definitely a possibility of cargo ships going fully electric. While this ship can only go 50 miles before recharging. We could be looking at a first step in electrifying cargo ships and moving cargo faster on the high seas."

From article, ( now a massive cargo ship in China has been officially launched with a battery powertrain.

The ship is 70.5 meters long, 13.9 meters wide, 4.5 meters deep, 3.3 meters draft design, and it has a cargo capacity of 2,000 tons.

According to China News (Chinese), the powertrain is equipped with two 160 kW electric propellers and a mix of supercapacitors and lithium batteries for a total energy capacity of 2.4 MWh. For comparison, that’s like 24 batteries from Tesla’s most high-powered vehicle: the Tesla Model S P100D.

Some of the world’s largest cargo ships emit pollution comparable to millions of passenger cars put together. The heavy fuel oil that they burn has high sulfur content and therefore, it is an important part of the world’s transportation industry that needs to transition to being battery-powered.

Improvement in energy density are likely going to be needed in order to enable long-distance routes in battery-powered ships combined with solar and sail, but in the meantime, plenty of other routes can be electrified, like this example in China and several ferries can quite easily go electric.)

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