You guys are too good. Ferries it is. Bonus points all around!
Rapid cycling is the key, but the ability to charge cars en route was too cool. It looks like the Swedes and Noregians beat me to it. My Danish sister-in-law tells me quite a bit of drinking happens along the way. Not sure how that relates to electric ferries, but what the heck.
It looks like I don't need to discuss this application much, but it is fun to illustrate how rapid cycling helps the economics. Suppose you've got a 1 MWh pack and that the average trip uses 65% capacity. The extra capacity is helpful as a margin of safety and to protect against the damage of deep cycling. I've that the total lifecycles of Li-ion batteries can be extended beyond 10,000 if the level of charge remains between 30% and 95%. If this ferry make say 10 voyages per day, it will last about 3 years (1000 days). In that time, it discarges 6.5 GWh. If energy arbitrage is a savings of say $0.32 per kWh, this is lifetime savings of $2M. This is such a fantastic return in three years, I would expect it to be well worth the retrofit cost. Moreover, much of the retrofit cost would just be a one time costs. Replacing the battery every three years for say $300k would be well worth it. Even if the frequency is less than 10 voyages per day, the economics work pretty well, but at a low enough level chronological aging of the battery could be a limiting factor and of course financing costs go up.
I do think that sightseeing vessels and cruiseships that dock daily have strong potential as well.
Rapid cycling is the key, but the ability to charge cars en route was too cool. It looks like the Swedes and Noregians beat me to it. My Danish sister-in-law tells me quite a bit of drinking happens along the way. Not sure how that relates to electric ferries, but what the heck.
It looks like I don't need to discuss this application much, but it is fun to illustrate how rapid cycling helps the economics. Suppose you've got a 1 MWh pack and that the average trip uses 65% capacity. The extra capacity is helpful as a margin of safety and to protect against the damage of deep cycling. I've that the total lifecycles of Li-ion batteries can be extended beyond 10,000 if the level of charge remains between 30% and 95%. If this ferry make say 10 voyages per day, it will last about 3 years (1000 days). In that time, it discarges 6.5 GWh. If energy arbitrage is a savings of say $0.32 per kWh, this is lifetime savings of $2M. This is such a fantastic return in three years, I would expect it to be well worth the retrofit cost. Moreover, much of the retrofit cost would just be a one time costs. Replacing the battery every three years for say $300k would be well worth it. Even if the frequency is less than 10 voyages per day, the economics work pretty well, but at a low enough level chronological aging of the battery could be a limiting factor and of course financing costs go up.
I do think that sightseeing vessels and cruiseships that dock daily have strong potential as well.
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