Actually, it’s not just one electric boat. The project involves building a Zephyrus “Mothership” electric boat that doubles as a floating charging station and hotel for offshore wind crews, who will be ferried around on a whole fleet of electric “daughter” crew transfer vessels, aka CTVs.
“The Zephyrus Zero Carbon Offshore wind service operation will utilize Shift’s PwrSwäp technology — a pay-as-you-go energy subscription service that delivers instant renewable, clean energy to vessels without risk,” the partners explain. “As a result, vessels can utilize only the energy they need without committing to a fixed energy storage system.”radar, but its cloud-based service and management model seems to be catching on.
Allen also counted just one SWATH service operations vessel in operation, though two more are under construction at a shipyard in Turkey. In terms of fielding a SWATH SOV fleet of electric boats, that also remains to be seen. The research team noted an increase in fuel consumption for the SWATH SOV under high seas compared to the monohull vessel. Its possible that electrification could nullify could level the playing field in that regard.The Zephyrus electric boat venture may seem to be jumping the gun, considering that Japan’s offshore wind industry has yet to get into gear.