[mcculley]

I am very skeptical. Battery tech is still far away from the energy density of diesel fuel. How far could an electric ship go and what could it carry?

[jacquesm]

There are multiple electric ferries already in operation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Ampere

They are quite impressive but they are still very far away from your average ocean going cargo vessel.

[toast0]

Electrifying ferries is great, but this particular one has a run time of 20 minutes (and a charge time of 10 minutes). I get a totally different vibe from 'oceanic ship' than a 20 minute ferry ride.

Near me, we now have a hybrid ferry, no charging infrastructure, but it still uses much less fuel than before it was refit, so that's cool too. It's bigger than the one you linked and sails on a longer route: 2,499 passengers, 202 vehicles, typically serves an 8.6 mile route.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Wenatchee

[mcculley]

Yeah, the oceanic part is the issue. Going between two close points, at least one of which has electricity, is easy.

[HWR_14]

Energy density doesn't seem to matter much in boats. Massive ships carry astronomical amounts of cargo.

[scythe]

Depends on the current fuel-to-payload ratio of the diesel ships. If it's 3% and batteries would push it to 10%, it's not a huge problem. But if it's 15% and batteries would push it to 50% you're losing a lot of capacity.

[timbit42]

The top upvoted comment on this post suggests it's less than double.

[hn12]

... and energy densities of batteries will _stay_ well below that of tanks of hydrocarbons, as https://web.archive.org/web/20130204210054/http://h30565.www... explains.

[timbit42]

Right, but batteries are still improving quickly. They won't stay where they currently are.