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Are we closer to an electric tow boat?


Horton
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Lithium is a metal. Lithium salts, like lithium carbonate, are used for treating bipolar disorders.

 

There are two main extraction methods: hard rock and brine. Currently, the largest lithium producing country is Australia, mostly hard rock mining. Brine has a cheaper production cost, and deposits are abundant in South America.

 

Mining, as well as oil extraction and transport, can be clean if done properly, and devastating to the environment if not.

 

On charging, you can get higher amperage with a thick cable, or with a battery bank - which is the solution many charging stations are using or planning to.

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I thought one of the interesting parts of the article was the charging time of for a "state of the art" new, electric boat: The boat is powered by a 55 kW electric motor and a 44 kWh lithium ion battery. It can be recharged with a 230V/16A or 110V/34A household outlet. A full charge takes 12 hours.
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Swedish company likely 230v probably 50 hz power.

 

120v 15 amp is pretty common us thats 1800 watts max, 1.8kw per hour is 24.5ish hours. Drop that to about an 80% load on the 15 amp breaker and you are right at 30 hours.

 

Bettery tech has gotten pretty good at accepting high charging rates but realistically to do it fast you need an electrician out to rewire. Its like installing a big electric hot tub.

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My 2 cents.

Cobolt will be harder to mine compared to Lithium.

 

Most 220 v countries has in reallity close to 240 v and every house have also 3 phase 400v 20 amps.

 

Hydrofoil boats can easily be used for recreational and some course water sking

- and that with half fuel consumption.

The boats will not look the same...

They will not track as nice or keep speed as well. But maybe fill a part of the market.

 

Electrical boats will have a market where gas is not allowed. Most likely with some type of hydrofoil system (an example could be the Dynalft 21 foot steg båt. I have skied behind that one)

 

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Although it still early days, that looks amazing.

 

Would be interesting to know how it handles with a skier. How much extra energy pulling someone through the course? How stable and responsive to speed control?

 

The LTC Marine conversion Nautique would use 10kWh for an 8 pass slalom set. I wonder how this boat would compare.

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IMO, No way to get an electric boat without hydrogen tank.

Use nuclear plant to produce Hydrogen during night (when grid consuption is low to generate hydrogen).

Refill hydrogen is much easier (gas station --> hydrogen station). How can you plus all car with wire when you live in a 15 floor building, and what about power request on electrical grid when everybody plus their car at 8pm....

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I think the foils are retractable for shallow water and trailers.

 

Hydrogen might be good but it's a very complicated and inefficient way of storing energy. Battery density is improving all the time but ski boats are so inefficient compared to cars, that current density is a real issue compared with gas.

 

The electrical grid is built for peak power and most places have a lot of excess capacity at night. In Ontario, base power is produced by nuclear and hydro with can produce the same amount of power 24/7. This leaves room for about 1 million cars to charge at night with no change in infrastructures.

 

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