Good question boss.
I dunno much about the
electric boat movement. I know its out there like everything else that drives or flies on this planet.
But a cruise ship? Seems the Chinese (US and CHina prolly ain't on friendly terms with this technology so not a lot is known) have the worlds biggest right now.
sources:
China Builds The World's Largest Electric Cruise Ship,
'World's largest electric cruise ship' makes maiden voyage in China with a whopping 7,500 kWh in battery power
"A bit over 300 feet long, 50+ feet wide, and can accommodate 1,300 passengers. the electric cruise ship is equipped with 7,500 kWh of battery capacity, one of the largest, if not the largest battery packs within an electric vehicle i(equivalent to 100 passenger vehicles) in the world.
However, even such tremendous capacity cannot deliver the necessary range for the large vessel to travel long distances on water. The ship’s current range is about 100 km (62 miles) on a charge.
Plenty of range for sightseeing up and down the river, but certainly not enough to compete with vacation cruise lines at this point. That being said, that 100 km range is equivalent to 530 metric tons of fuel, accounting for 1,660 less tons of toxic emissions each year."
Five years ago, the speculation was the Chinese electric boat would rival existing cruise ships when it showed up in 2022.
source:
https://www.marinelog.com/news/plan-to-build-up-to-six-cruise-ships-in-china-moves-ahead/
This Carnival Vista boat is 1,100 feet long, 150 feet wide, can carry 5,000 people, at 18 knots, for
thousands of trans-oceanic kilometers. The Chinese can likely easily (maybe - probably some IP they'd need to get around) build a
conventional boat this size .. but an electric-populsion boat? Naw .... I don't think anybody can.
While the Chinese boat is a good learning lab, it aint yet remotely in the same league as a modern cruise ship as
some people kinda thought five years ago for the electric boat.
Nowhere near the the size of the Norwegian Cruise Lines or Carnival ships, nor in performance (speed not disclosed) but only with a range of 60 miles before it needs a recharge.
It also operates along the Yangtse River and gets its recharges using the Three Gorges dam facilities in some way .. how do you charge 7,500 KWh (7.5
Mega watts) in a timely way?
Big cruise ships and cargo carriers, IMHO, will have the same kinda problem why we don't see electric 787s. Sustained electric power needed, to economically travel thousands of miles without stopping to "recharge", vs what jet engines/petroleum aviation fuels provide, is totally inadequate for electrics.
source:
Electric Airplanes Won’t Make Much of a Dent in Air Travel for Decades to Come
Subject for another thread, but I can see
giant passenger/cargo transportation systems staying on petroleum-based, "internal combustion" propulsion systems for a LONG time.
In the meantime, work is surely gonna continue on alternative propulsion in earnest.
