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A comment on Battery-Powered Ships Next Up in Battle to Tackle Emissions. Parent comment

Re:Battery-Powered Ships Next Up in Battle to Tackle Emissions by nradov on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @09:40PM (#20641064)
Do the math. Solar won't produce enough power to move the ship at a useful speed. Container freighters have minimal space to even install panels. And multihull designs are impractical for cargo handling.
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Re:Battery-Powered Ships Next Up in Battle to Tackle Emissions by inflatableDodo on Thursday August 08, 2019 @04:34AM (#20642792)
Four air support hull container ships and a detachable square kilometer of panel, that can fold up and floats on pontoons, is where the maths is leading me currently. :)
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Re:Battery-Powered Ships Next Up in Battle to Tackle Emissions by nradov on Thursday August 08, 2019 @10:44AM (#20645034)
I hope you're joking? That would never work in any kind of rough weather, or in a congested port.
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Re:Battery-Powered Ships Next Up in Battle to Tackle Emissions by inflatableDodo on Thursday August 08, 2019 @11:23AM (#20645388)
>I hope you're joking?

Idly musing on what it level of nonsense it might actually take with current tech, would be the best description. The panel would have to fold up and detach from the container ships, becoming a separate vessel, for rough weather, ports and canals.

I did say a very big multihull.

edit - suspending a power rail underwater for electric container ships to link to, powered by a corridor of floating panels, is another potential approach.

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