https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/the-smarter-grid/electric-boats-could-be-floating-batteries-for-remote-islands
[links in online article]
15 Aug 2019 | 19:30 GMT
Electric Boats Could Be Floating Batteries for Island Microgrids
Researchers in Australia have developed a control algorithm that allows
electric boats equipped with solar panels to sell power to a microgrid
By Erica Snyder
In developed countries, lights roar to life with the flick of a switch
and televisions hum quietly with the touch of a button—given you still
have one of those. But on most of Indonesia’s remote islands, accessing
electricity is neither simple nor convenient.
For example—prior to 2018, diesel generators provided residents of East
Kalimantan’s Berau district with electricity for just four hours a day.
That June, a government-backed organization installed new hybrid
microgrids, enabling residents to have electricity all day long, pv
magazine reported. These hybrid microgrids were composed of photovoltaic
solar panels (PVs) to collect energy and lithium-ion batteries to store it.
But there may be another way to power remote islands, especially in the
aftermath of natural disasters: boats. Yes, boats.
Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia
created an algorithm that can theoretically turn electric boats into
small renewable power plants. They tested the algorithm with a microgrid
in their lab, using four 6-volt gel batteries connected in a 24-V series
as a stand-in for a boat.
In their experiment, they found that the algorithm could manage power
flows reliably enough to allow electric boats to provide peak load
support to a grid directly after a trip.
To implement this approach, they’d need an electric boat with its own PV
system, which would charge the boat’s batteries when the boat was
adrift. Then when the boat is docked, it could act as a small power
plant, providing electricity to homes on the island.
With the algorithm in place, boat owners could decide when to sell
electricity—and how much they wanted to sell. They might, for example,
set their system to automatically sell 10 percent of its stored energy,
and only if the batteries are at least halfway charged.
Boats are uniquely positioned to provide this kind of service, the
researchers point out. Electric cars don’t generally have their own PV
system. So instead of adding power to the grid like a boat could,
electric cars draw from it.
The proposed technology works pretty similarly to the microgrids that
are gradually rolling out in Indonesia—those microgrids also contain PVs
to collect energy and lithium-ion batteries to store it. But there’s one
key difference: portability.
If Indonesia were hit with a natural disaster, those microgrids could be
destroyed. Even Indonesia’s widely electrified islands may be impacted.
With the new approach, the Indonesian government could use the boats it
sent with food and supplies to also provide power.
The concept is still in its infancy, but the University of New South
Wales team expects to get its algorithm out of the lab and into the
ocean by testing it with an actual electric boat in the near future.
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