In the first week of December some members of our engineering team visited the International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans, La. With success at the show last year, being named recipients of one of the Significant Boats of 2009, the team was excited to see what other companies had been working on in 2010. The team had the opportunity to see what others in the industry were doing to reduce emissions, provide a healthy workplace for their crew and ultimately protect the environment. One thing our team reported back on was the willingness of others in the industry to discuss alternative propulsion systems, such as the those being implemented on the Hornblower Hybrid projects.
Three years ago, that was a different story...While it takes time to understand, time to learn and time to adopt our team was motivated by the fact that many people were willing to discuss our project. Many even acknowledged that there is a spot for the technologies being implemented on the Hornblower Hybrid, in certain applications, in the near future.
As we mentioned in our previous posting, we have seen questions from folks across the country asking:
- How will the vessel work?
- How will you use the diesel generators, hydrogen fuel cells, batteries, solar panels and wind turbines to power the vessel?
- Are you going to be running only on Hydrogen?
- What other vessels or boats would this system work on?
Today we'd like to provide you an overview of the systems on the New York Hornblower Hybrid. Additionally, we will work to answer some of the most common questions that we've seen. While this overview won't go into great detail, it will provide you a better sense of the project and the various technologies being employed to reduce our overall emissions.
In the upcoming weeks we will continue to elaborate on each of the propulsion and renewable technologies, including:
- Variable Speed Generators
- Hydrogen Fuel Cells
- Solar Panels
- Wind Turbines
- Batteries
- Rapid Cold Ironing
As we elaborate on the various systems we will provide readers the opportunity to learn about the benefits of not relying on a single source of power. Each power source listed above has different environmental, health & safety and efficiency attributes.
Continue to stay tuned for great videos and pictures of the project. What are some other topics you would like to see discussed?
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Nice video. I agree with you!
Posted by: Erica | 05/05/2011 at 10:42 PM
It is so nice to see American innovation is still alive. How soon do you think that you will be applying this technology to smaller boats? I am actually building a boat myself right now and plan to apply solar energy as a charging source for the electric motors. My boat is only going to be 14' long though. Do you have any advice in regard to the actual motors I could use to propel the boat?
Love the blog. I will be back often!
Posted by: Boat Guy | 07/07/2011 at 05:23 AM
WOW what a technology one cannot be idle without appreciating their innovation. Everyone is looking for the small applications. But Americans are innovating to new technology with huge applications using solar energy much. They are giving new technology for the upcoming generation which all has to appreciate.
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