Electric vehicles aren’t just on the roads today, a new battery powered ship is about to hit the high seas. Let’s unveil the electric powered cargo ship.
Port-Liner a Dutch company has developed what is being called “Tesla ships”. This company is constructing electric only shipping container transport ships. This 100 million euro project or around 116 million dollars has support from the European union in the form of a 7 million euro subsidy. This project is set to create multiple of these electric barges with capability of carrying 24 or 270 shipping containers.
These crewless, emission free ships are set to do routes along the waterways of Belgium and the Netherlands and have be specifically designed to fit under all bridges along the route. The first 5 barges will measure 52 meters long or 6.7 meters wide. They can travel 15 hours on their battery power which will be charged by Eneco, a carbon free energy provider. The first 5 barges will be smaller ones carrying 24 containers with 6 larger ships designed to hold 270 containers. Being an electric ship, no engine room is required giving these vessels an additional 8% extra cargo space. The effect of these ships is expected to remove 23,000 trucks off the road annually in the Netherlands. At the current rate Port-Liner can build 500 of these ships a year.
Port-Liner not only has developed this eco ship but a battery pack that houses the batteries inside a container which would allow existing barges to retrofit their system with non-polluting green energy.
This step towards making ocean faring vehicles nonpolluting could have a massive impact as some of the largest ships in the world produce the equivalent pollution of a couple million cars combined.
Port-Liner’s ship isn’t the only electric one out there. China has huge all electric ship designed for short distance trips. This ship is 70.5 meters long by or 13.9 meters wide. With a maximum distance of only 80 km on a single charge this boat was designed with a very specific function in mind being short cargo transport trips down the Pearl river in Guangdong Province. Only in China would they develop an electric ship to transport coal.
Source: Earth Titan Channel - Youtube
