http://revengeoftheelectriccar.com The Film : The Blogs : The Revolution Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:50:52 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://revengeoftheelectriccar.com The Film : The Blogs : The Revolution Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:50:52 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://revengeoftheelectriccar.com The Film : The Blogs : The Revolution Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:50:52 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://revengeoftheelectriccar.com/even-tugboats-are-going-electric/ http://revengeoftheelectriccar.com/even-tugboats-are-going-electric/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:41:10 +0000 Paul Scott http://revengeoftheelectriccar.com/?p=1592 [/caption] Remember the Balqon container truck I wrote about a while back, the Port of Long Beach truck that can haul 60,000 lbs and that's starting to  replace diesel spewing internal combustion trucks? Well add another link in the chain to clean our ports with a PHEV tug. Built by a company called Foss, this tug is capable of 60 tons of bollard pull, (OK, I had to wiki that: Bollard pull is a value that allows the comparison of the pulling power of watercraft, particularly tugboats. I bet even Dan Neil didn't know that one:~) Since battery weight in a boat isn't much of an issue, they can use low cost lead acid batteries, yet still get all the power and energy they need. Plugging into the SoCal grid, in this case, SoCal Edison, this PHEV tug is significantly cleaner than its diesel burning brethren. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together constitute the largest port facility in the U.S. and the diesel burned in the ships that dock there, the tugs that move them into berth, and the trucks that haul the containers inland, even the cranes that remove the containers from the ships, shortens the lives of thousands downwind of the port. Now they are all are going electric, either fully or plug-in hybrid - one at a time. We're just beginning, but over the coming years, most of the diesel burned in that small area will be replaced with domestic electrons. Too bad the people living there can't hold their breath that long. [caption id="attachment_1601" align="alignright" width="400" caption="Photo Credit: Foss Maritime"][/caption] The ports need to step up and install solar to generate as much of those kilowatt hours as possible. They have plenty of room for several megawatts of PV there. I couldn't help but notice the tug was made in tiny Rainier, OR. I wonder how many people can be put to work building these for ports all over the world? Betcha they'd like to find out. "Hello, Barack, can we talk... ?" Paul See the article by Bruce Buis for WorkBoat.com: New hybrid tug from Foss Here is the full text of the entire article, in case the link goes bad: http://divcom-fish.informz.net/admin31/content/template.asp?sid=12781&ptid=169&brandid=3174&uid=755713994&mi=445439 New hybrid tug from Foss By Bruce Buls, Technical Editor It’s real. It’s green (and white). It’s the new Foss hybrid! Last Friday, almost 300 of us commercial marine types showed up at Pier D in Long Beach, Calif., for the official unveiling of the world’s first hybrid tug — Foss Maritime’s Carolyn Dorothy. For Foss and the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, the ceremony marked the culmination of a large investment of time and money. Together, the two ports contributed about $1.5 million (out of a total over $8 million) for the tug’s design and construction with the expectation of reduced emissions. And what they didn’t see, they got. Smoke, that is. After the usual round of speeches, handshakes and photos, the tug itself took center stage and did a few turns in the harbor all without firing up a single engine. With 126 lead-acid batteries and two Siemens motor-generators, the Carolyn Dorothy is capable of running at up to 4.5 knots in zero-emissions mode. Now, it can’t run like that for long — and that was never really the intention — but it’s cool that it can. Essentially, the hybrid’s game plan is to use a variety of power sources that match the needs of the moment. If the tug is sitting out by the gate waiting for a ship to arrive, batteries alone can supply the hotel load and some maneuvering. While running out there, it can make almost 6 knots from the power of a single generator. And if the tug is pulling a 12,000-TEU containership against wind and tide, it can utilize both mains, both gensets and both motor- generators to produce over 60 tons of bollard pull, just like its Dolphin-class sisters. That’s the beauty of the new tug: it doesn’t have to waste fuel and engine hours (while spewing out emissions) when doing little or nothing. And it rarely idles the main engines, which is the least fuel efficient and dirtiest load condition. Foss partnered with Canada’s Aspin Kemp & Associates to produce the new hybrid. AKA designed and built the power management system that controls all the parts. Foss built the boat at its Rainier, Ore., shipyard. It’s a huge credit to both companies that the tug was delivered on time and on budget, something that’s often hard to do with proven technology, let alone the first of its kind. Congratulations to them both. For more about the Carolyn Dorothy, be sure to catch our story about this trend-setting new harbor tug in the March issue of WorkBoat.]]> http://revengeoftheelectriccar.com/even-tugboats-are-going-electric/feed/ 0