Tuesday, July 12, 2011

No. 292: Hybrid car carrier with a photovoltaic generation capacity of 160 kW (July 13, 2011)

A car carrier equipped with a hybrid power feeding system that combines photovoltaic cells and lithium-ion cells is on the stocks. The newly-developed power feeding system will supplement the conventional diesel generator, and decrease fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by 5%. This energy saving car carrier was jointly developed by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Sanyo Electric, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Solar panels put on the wide deck have a generation capacity of 160 kW, whereas existing carriers carry a photovoltaic generation system with a generation capacity of 40-50 kW at the most. While the carrier is traveling on the sea, the system generates power and stores the generated power using the lithium-ion cells that have a capacity of 2.2 megawatts. The generated power will be used for lighting of the carrier and as the electric source of measuring instruments. The system connects about 300,000 small and general-purpose lithium-ion cells from Sanyo Electric. They are put on the bottom to stabilize the carrier. The new car carrier will be put into commercial service in June 2012.

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