Norway, with it's many fjords and ferries has a long tradition for ferry foods. Along the (mid) western coast taking a ferry without eating a svele[1] (looks similar to an american pancake) is pretty much unthinkable :) This type of food is usually cooked and served fresh on the ferries.<p>I live near the Ampere ferry pictured in the article. And one interesting side-effect of electrification is that they don't have enough power to spare for a full kitchen (with griddles, etc)[2].<p>Now they have to sell ready-made sveler instead of cooking them on the spot and serving them fresh[3]. Electric ferries are essentially killing "norwegian ferry food culture" to much despair for svele loving passengers :P<p>[1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svele" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svele</a><p>[2]: <a href="https://www.nrk.no/sognogfjordane/droppar-kiosken-pa-batteriferja-1.11761283" rel="nofollow">https://www.nrk.no/sognogfjordane/droppar-kiosken-pa-batteri...</a> (article is in nynorsk ("new-norwegian") and google translate is basically useless)<p>[3]: <a href="https://www.nrk.no/sognogfjordane/no-er-den-forste-el-ferja-i-drift-pa-anda-lote-1.13882041" rel="nofollow">https://www.nrk.no/sognogfjordane/no-er-den-forste-el-ferja-...</a>
Missing from the article:<p>- Battery capacity: 1MWh [1]<p>- Charging power: 6MW (assuming they charge the full battery in the 10 minutes mentioned in the article)<p>Unfortunately, I cannot find the article, but I believe I once read that charging the batteries that quickly caused problems with power grid stability, so they had "auxiliary batteries" at the ports that they charged with lower power, and then transferred the energy from those batteries to the ship batteries with high power, which effectively tripled the battery cost. [EDIT: the issue is actually mentioned in article [1], where they have two 410kWh shore charging stations]<p>[1] <a href="http://corvusenergy.com/marine-project/mf-ampere-ferry/" rel="nofollow">http://corvusenergy.com/marine-project/mf-ampere-ferry/</a>
How much CO2 per kWh does it come to when you divide the total CO2 footprint of the battery manufacture and materials over the charge cycles of the battery?<p>edit: One study[1] indicates the figures are 150-200 kg CO2 equivalent per 1 kWh of battery. So for 1000 cycle durability, that would make 150-200 g per kWh even without counting the CO2 effects of charging power[2]. Diesel engines emit 250 g per kWh[3] of energy produced. Doesn't sound like such a great tradeoff.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.ivl.se/download/18.5922281715bdaebede9559/1496046218976/C243+The+life+cycle+energy+consumption+and+CO2+emissions+from+lithium+ion+batteries+.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.ivl.se/download/18.5922281715bdaebede9559/1496046...</a><p>[2] Even if Norway produces low emission hydro electricity, the same electricity could be used to displace dirty power if exported to Denmark etc.<p>[3] <a href="https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/co2-emission-fuels-d_1085.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/co2-emission-fuels-d_1085...</a>
As someone who doesn’t know anything about batteries, I have some questions about lithium.<p>1) Do we have lithium shortage?<p>2) When do we expect to have lithium shortage?<p>3) Do we have any alternative technology for batteries?<p>4) How green is lithium in the environment?<p>5) Is lithium recyclable?<p>6) What is the future for batteries?<p>Sorry, I asked a lot of questions.
from a separate article: <a href="http://corvusenergy.com/marine-project/mf-ampere-ferry/" rel="nofollow">http://corvusenergy.com/marine-project/mf-ampere-ferry/</a><p>>Rather than installing additional electrical capacity to the ports, an onshore Corvus Energy 410kWh ESS comprised of 63 AT6500 Liquid-Cooled modules was installed on both sides of the route, each providing near instantaneous transfer of power to the vessel ESS.
How come sails aren't making a comeback? Seems like an ideal complement to electric ships. Use the wind to recharge the batteries using generators or to propel the ship forward. When there is no wind, run on the energy stored in the batteries.
> For now, electric ships make most sense in populated waterfront areas where they can be recharged easily and improve air quality and noise pollution<p>And probably requires a duty cycle that can afford sitting at a dock for hours a day to recharge, right? So passenger ferries (that typically don't run 24-hours a day)?
The best way to reduce emissions is to reduce consumption. Let's help the process by buying less stuff to reduce the number of ships.<p>We'll produce less litter and pollution too.
One of the problems is having enough safety margin for energy storage. When a car runs out of power there is a shoulder to cry on nearby. With a ship adrift things can get ugly in no time.
Let's also remember it matters where the electricity comes from. You're not necessarily going green if you use coal-based electricity.<p>Source: <a href="https://www.electricitymap.org" rel="nofollow">https://www.electricitymap.org</a>