Quote:
Originally Posted by Changing City
They're diesel-battery hybrid engines, so the diesel engines drive a generator that charges the batteries to propel the ship. The diesel engines are designed to use bio-diesel, ( TransLink buses also now use it).
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Using a diesel-to-electric powertrain with batteries allows the ferry to run with the diesel engines always set to their most efficient configuration and then draw whatever power is needed from moment-to-moment from the batteries. This is one of the ways that a hybrid car (such as a Prius) saves energy.
The other big way that hybrid cars save energy is to recoup momentum when you slow or stop by turning the electric motor into a generator and feeding the energy back into the battery again. This can recover most of the energy that was needed to stop the car, store it in the battery, and then use it to get the car going again. I assume that the ferries wouldn't be able to take advantage of this.
It would be interesting to know just how much diesel fuel is saved by operating the ferry in hybrid mode.
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