The electric and hybrid marine market will increase rapidly from $2.6 billion in 2013 to over $7.3 billion by 2024, a recent report from IDTechEx.
The report says that electric and hybrid marine business, from Autonomous Underwater Vehicles to oil rig supply vessels and seagoing ferries is a large, vibrant and growing activity.
The industrial commercial and military sectors have legal push such as newly onerous harbor pollution regulations along with strong government and industry push.
An example of this is Norway where they seek to make its offshore oil industry as green as possible. That is why the Tesla is Norway’s best-selling car – the huge tax breaks and widespread deployment of charging stations make it happen.
All Norwegian offshore supply vessels are becoming hybrid and many sea going ferries are being made electric as is the case in the USA for example.
Tugboats are going pure electric and, more often, hybrid in the USA and elsewhere to meet pollution requirements and improve performance. Meanwhile many ships moor electrically and tugboats hold position at sea electrically.
The attractions for military forces are even greater. The hybrid boat can act as a huge silent power supply for equipment at destination and travel covertly yet have long range and give huge surges of energy as required.
For the Special Forces a silent electric boat or personal submarine is a disposable. Advanced range extenders are being added such as fuel cells and submarines that fly are in prospect. Already available, we see a fast surface boat that is also an efficient submarine but these things do not come cheap.