5 ms·
With today's commodity-scale solar panels, is there enough non-container surface area on a Triple-E to reduce the fuel usage by 1% with a solar electric drive t
by akeck 12y ago
With today's commodity-scale solar panels, is there enough non-container surface area on a Triple-E to reduce the fuel usage by 1% with a solar electric drive that assists the fuel-based engines?
- seanflyon 12y agoI think wind power makes more sense. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkySails http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkySails
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- krschultz 12y agoThere is almost no non-container space deck space. Take a look at how they designed the superstructure where the crew lives, it is super narrow, full width, and obviously full height. You might have better luck on an oil tanker or car carrier.
- darkmighty 12y agoThey could make special containers with solar panels integrated into their roofs (and place them carefully on top of course), and find a way to route cables cheaply. Given solars area power density, I'd guess completely uneconomical.
- toomuchtodo 12y agoSupposedly, container ships will be moving to CNG/LNG for fuel when they move to fully autonomous operations, as propulsion systems using natural gas as a fuel require substantially lower maintenance than current bunker fuel propulsion systems. While not renewable like solar or wind, running these ships on CNG/LNG would be much, much cleaner than the fuel they're currently running on.