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You would be consuming fossil fuels to charge a ship when the sun is giving you energy for free. At least capture some of that to charge some batteries or exte

You would be consuming fossil fuels to charge a ship when the sun is giving you energy for free. At least capture some of that to charge some batteries or extend the length of your voyage.

WJW 10mo ago
The energy is not free, since the solar panels cost money and don't last forever. Even at optimistic prices, it's still something like 0.03 USD/kWh. Install them on a boat and they have to deal with constant vibrations, humid conditions, seagulls shitting all over them, etc etc etc. I used to work on ships and almost everything constantly breaks down without constant maintenance. I bet it would be much cheaper to put the solar panels on land and charge the ship when it's in port.
- teiferer 10mo ago
  That may all be true, but there are other benefits that could make it worth it. For example it could be, in theory, self-sufficient forever if something else breaks down making it unable to maneuver. Then you can at least sit in the middle of the sea and have your heating and cooking and desalination working until you repair the propulsion.
  - padjo 10mo ago
    You already have MWh of batteries for that.
    - reactordev 10mo ago
      No you don’t because after a few days broken down, they are drained without solar.
- reactordev 10mo ago
  I sailed around the world on a sailboat with solar. I know. It’s still better than none at all. The energy is free. To capture it costs a little bit of money.
  - vlovich123 10mo ago
    There’s something funny to me about taking your experience with solar on a small sailboat and extrapolating this to a commercial ferry that would need a very large solar installation that’s funny to me. Something tells me the experience isn’t transferable.
    - reactordev 10mo ago
      The point isn’t to power the main drive, the point is to preserve energy used elsewhere on the ship. My experience sailing and dealing with vessels from 30ft to 180ft give me a perspective that you probably don’t. Providing solar panels along the roof would give the ship a few KWh of power that would otherwise be drawing from the main batteries. This would extend the range of the ship by 5-10%.
      - vlovich123 10mo ago
        For how much cost? The range of the ship is already handled well by the batteries. An extra 5-10% isn’t going to meaningfully add value nor reduce fuel costs. There’s no way to recapture the capital expenditure such solar panels would require.
        dzhiurgis 10mo ago
        Adding range reduction turn around time. Ship is making money while it is moving, not while it’s charging. Also why roro batteries make most sense.
        vlovich123 10mo ago
        I’m assuming that the boat gets charged fast enough for one way trip while passengers are loading. There’s no need for much more capacity beyond that.
        gbear605 10mo ago
        The journey it makes is 90 minutes and it can charge for that journey in 8 minutes. Offloading and onloading the thousands of passengers (and 220 cars!) takes much longer than the 8 minutes for the battery to charge.
cush 10mo ago
Why don’t electric cars and trucks have solar panels then?
- reactordev 10mo ago
  Oh you mean like the Aptera or the Hyundai Ioniq 5? They do have solar panels built in. Prius Prime as well. These aren’t powerful enough to charge the main drive though, not enough surface area and voltage.
  - victorbjorklund 10mo ago
    But why not put it on a Tesla if it will be so much more efficient than putting the same panels on your roof of your house and charge your Tesla with that?
    - reactordev 10mo ago
      Because they want to sell you the cheapest car possible for the most money possible, sell you a home charging unit, sell you solar shingles, sell you a new power plant for your home to go with those shingles. They are not in the business of making their cars efficient, only making the cash flow efficient.
      - victorbjorklund 10mo ago
        What stops you from slapping a solar panel on the roof if it is the most efficient way to charge an EV?
        reactordev 10mo ago
        the fact that many new electric cars do have solar panels, I fail to see your reasoning. A solar panel isn't going to provide you with enough energy to drive. Merely enough energy to trickle charge your batteries. Now, should you run out of charge during your drive, you simply have to wait a while and you'll have enough to get you to a charging station. Or you can walk, taxi there. On an ocean or channel crossing, you don't have that luxury and must rely on other ships if you run out of charge. The point I'm making is that any electric vehicle should incorporate solar panels into the design to minimize it's dependence entirely on the batteries and can extend it's time doing what it's designed to do. As solar panels advance and the wattage increases, this will be more and more important as it will open up new avenues for transportation. Like the solar LSA plane "Solar Impulse" that can fly indefinitely.
OfficeChad 10mo ago
[dead]
victorbjorklund 10mo ago
Read again. I said you can put the panels on land where it is 100x easier and cheaper to install them vs on a ship. Solar panels are not fossil fuel.

You would be consuming fossil fuels to charge a ship when the sun is giving you energy for free. At least capture some of that to charge some batteries or extend the length of your voyage.

WJW 10mo ago

The energy is not free, since the solar panels cost money and don't last forever. Even at optimistic prices, it's still something like 0.03 USD/kWh. Install them on a boat and they have to deal with constant vibrations, humid conditions, seagulls shitting all over them, etc etc etc. I used to work on ships and almost everything constantly breaks down without constant maintenance. I bet it would be much cheaper to put the solar panels on land and charge the ship when it's in port.

teiferer 10mo ago
That may all be true, but there are other benefits that could make it worth it. For example it could be, in theory, self-sufficient forever if something else breaks down making it unable to maneuver. Then you can at least sit in the middle of the sea and have your heating and cooking and desalination working until you repair the propulsion.
- padjo 10mo ago
  You already have MWh of batteries for that.
  - reactordev 10mo ago
    No you don’t because after a few days broken down, they are drained without solar.
reactordev 10mo ago
I sailed around the world on a sailboat with solar. I know. It’s still better than none at all. The energy is free. To capture it costs a little bit of money.
- vlovich123 10mo ago
  There’s something funny to me about taking your experience with solar on a small sailboat and extrapolating this to a commercial ferry that would need a very large solar installation that’s funny to me. Something tells me the experience isn’t transferable.
  - reactordev 10mo ago
    The point isn’t to power the main drive, the point is to preserve energy used elsewhere on the ship. My experience sailing and dealing with vessels from 30ft to 180ft give me a perspective that you probably don’t. Providing solar panels along the roof would give the ship a few KWh of power that would otherwise be drawing from the main batteries. This would extend the range of the ship by 5-10%.
    - vlovich123 10mo ago
      For how much cost? The range of the ship is already handled well by the batteries. An extra 5-10% isn’t going to meaningfully add value nor reduce fuel costs. There’s no way to recapture the capital expenditure such solar panels would require.
      - dzhiurgis 10mo ago
        Adding range reduction turn around time. Ship is making money while it is moving, not while it’s charging. Also why roro batteries make most sense.
        vlovich123 10mo ago
        I’m assuming that the boat gets charged fast enough for one way trip while passengers are loading. There’s no need for much more capacity beyond that.
        gbear605 10mo ago
        The journey it makes is 90 minutes and it can charge for that journey in 8 minutes. Offloading and onloading the thousands of passengers (and 220 cars!) takes much longer than the 8 minutes for the battery to charge.

cush 10mo ago

Why don’t electric cars and trucks have solar panels then?

reactordev 10mo ago
Oh you mean like the Aptera or the Hyundai Ioniq 5? They do have solar panels built in. Prius Prime as well. These aren’t powerful enough to charge the main drive though, not enough surface area and voltage.
- victorbjorklund 10mo ago
  But why not put it on a Tesla if it will be so much more efficient than putting the same panels on your roof of your house and charge your Tesla with that?
  - reactordev 10mo ago
    Because they want to sell you the cheapest car possible for the most money possible, sell you a home charging unit, sell you solar shingles, sell you a new power plant for your home to go with those shingles. They are not in the business of making their cars efficient, only making the cash flow efficient.
    - victorbjorklund 10mo ago
      What stops you from slapping a solar panel on the roof if it is the most efficient way to charge an EV?
      - reactordev 10mo ago
        the fact that many new electric cars do have solar panels, I fail to see your reasoning. A solar panel isn't going to provide you with enough energy to drive. Merely enough energy to trickle charge your batteries. Now, should you run out of charge during your drive, you simply have to wait a while and you'll have enough to get you to a charging station. Or you can walk, taxi there. On an ocean or channel crossing, you don't have that luxury and must rely on other ships if you run out of charge. The point I'm making is that any electric vehicle should incorporate solar panels into the design to minimize it's dependence entirely on the batteries and can extend it's time doing what it's designed to do. As solar panels advance and the wattage increases, this will be more and more important as it will open up new avenues for transportation. Like the solar LSA plane "Solar Impulse" that can fly indefinitely.

OfficeChad 10mo ago

[dead]

victorbjorklund 10mo ago

Read again. I said you can put the panels on land where it is 100x easier and cheaper to install them vs on a ship. Solar panels are not fossil fuel.