Could Battery – Powered Container Ships Serve Transatlantic Trade?
Many years ago, University of Michigan Professor of Business C. K. Prahalad authored Competing for the Future, in which he explored a concept termed the “convergence of technologies.” A convergence of technologies involving advances in the design of container ships and advances in battery technology offers the prospect of a large battery-electric container ship actually sailing between the ports of Algeciras and Halifax, across the North Atlantic.
Introduction
The advent of lower cost solar and wind electric power has prompted development of energy storage technologies, including low-cost, grid-scale energy storage batteries. While some grid-scale energy storage systems are non-mobile, it is actually possible to adapt other grid-scale storage technologies for mobile operation in mega-scale transportation vehicles, such as ships. The size of container ships has increased over the past 40 years, with the largest ships offering up to 24 times the capacity of the smallest container ships.
Researchers involved in energy storage development have focused on long-life, low-cost technology that would be recyclable. Combining advances in low-cost electro-chemical energy storage with advances in container ship development offers the prospect of a battery-powered container ship that could sail across the North Atlantic Ocean, with the shortest route connecting the Western Mediterranean transshipment terminal at Algericas with the port of Halifax in Eastern Canada, a distance of 3,300 nautical miles. Recent developments in game-changing container transfer and vertical container stacking technologies promise to enhance future container transshipment at the Port of Halifax, connecting to Boston and Montreal.
