HERE IS A QUICK RUNDOWN OF THE COMPANIES AND ORGANIZATION INVOLVED:
Plymouth, UK
Aqua superPower is installing, operating and monitoring the two-way chargers.
RS Electric Boats will be building the vessels
RAD Propulsion will be supplying the electric drives
The University of Plymouth will provide their expertise in marine electrification and battery chemistry.
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
BlueGrid, a Halifax-based marine V2G software provider, is working with:
COVE (Center for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship), a Halifax marine technology hub
Lennox Island First Nation, who will be deeply involved in skills training, and
Dalhousie University, home of the Jeff Dahn Research Group, which has an exclusive research collaboration with Tesla for battery development.
On the UK side funding is coming from Innovate UK, part of the UK Research and Innovation science and research funding agency.
Canadian funding is coming in part from Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, which has almost 600 members from a wide spectrum of sectors including aquaculture, marine renewables, defence, transportation and ocean technology.
BUILDING MOMENTUM FOR PATH TO BROAD MARKET USAGE
The transatlantic consortium will co-develop a V2G ecosystem, supporting V2G standards integration, battery R&D, and energy market alignment. It will create relationships, intellectual property, foster commercial partnerships and build momentum for paths to broader market implementation in the UK, Canada and other regions. Universities and commercial partners will gain from ongoing R&D collaborations.
Everyone agrees that V2G will be a huge factor in the future of electric boats and vessels, but like so many things, the difficult part is getting to that future. One of the reasons this project is so important and exciting is that the companies involved in both countries have already been working on V2G and can now combine their knowledge and experience.
Aqua superPower was a leader in creating the UK’s first high power DC electric boat charging network, started in prominent Plymouth locations in May of 2022. The company has worked with RS Electric and RAD Propulsion on other marine charging pilots since then, most recently the Virtual Bunkering for Electric Vessels (VBEV) – which is another Innovate UK project.
In Halifax, BlueGrid announced about a year ago that they were working on a V2G pilot with ABCO Boats, Norway’s Evoy electric drives and V2G charging system manufacturer BorgWarner. The first successful test was completed a few weeks ago, on May 30th.
“This is a world-first for the electric boating industry and a key milestone in the maritime sector’s transition to electric,” said Leif Stavøstrand, CEO of Evoy at the time. BlueGrid CEO Andrew Boswell expanded on that, saying the achievement “demonstrates our commitment to building data and intelligence solutions that forge pathways from vessel owners to electricity grids, enabling those
participating to achieve financially rewarding net-zero goals together.”
The data is a key part of everything. The V2G chargers need to monitor the needs of both sides of the system – the boats and the on-shore grid – accumulate information, then use that to develop algorithms and optimize everything for all involved.
One of the key things is that electric vessels, can cost-effectively bridge gaps in wind and solar electricity generation by providing grid support during peak electricity supply and demand periods without negatively impacting vessel operations.
The other key factors are two cost equations: the financial equation and the carbon equation. No matter how one looks at it, the battery in any electric boat or vessel is a significant investment. The more it can be put to use the better – and if that use also is an income generator, so much the better.
There is also a significant amount of carbon involved in building a battery when you look at a life-cycle assessment – all of the carbon emitted along the production steps from the machines that dug up and forged the materials, transported the materials, transported the finished product, etc.
The more the battery is used, the lower the carbon per kiloWatt hour. We say that a battery has a capacity of X kilowatt hours, but that is not exactly accurate. If the battery can be charged/discharged 1,000 times, the storage capacity is actually X,000 kWh, and the carbon impact per kWh is dramatically less than the carbon impact of burning fossil fuel to release that amount of energy.
The CAN-UK is a great pathway to the future for electric boats and vessels of all sizes. One of the benefits is that as V2G is developed further, it will do it at the same time as the entire marine charging infrastructure is being developed. The marinas, ports and others that are looking at installing high speed charging will also be able to include V2G capabilities from the outset.
This article first appeared on the
www.Plugboats.com website and is published here with our thanks.
THE REPORT | SEP 2024 | ISSUE 109 | 117
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