Fleetzero has developed a concept for the electrification of shipping, where electric ships will receive batteries stowed in freight containers and make more stops at smaller ports, where the empty batteries are handed in and new ones are picked up to take the ships to the next destination.
FleetZero has raised 3.5 million US dollars and wants to start converting ships in 2025. The company wants to convert diesel ships to battery-electric while developing an electric ship designed for trans-pacific cargo delivery.
Fleetzero has designed the batteries for marine environments, giving emphasis on safety, fire prevention and durability. Each storage pack has 2 MWh of energy, housed in a low-height container of 20 feet by five feet with a weight of eight tonnes.
The batteries packs can withstand inversion, shock, and excess g-forces. According to FleetZero, their container battery system has received approval for vessel propulsion from ABS.
If you only have one large ship that has to swap out batteries at each end, you must keep twice the number of active batteries around — a set to swap out at each destination. But if you split the same capacity among several smaller ships and add more possible stops, suddenly it takes far less battery capacity to move the same amount of cargo
said founder Steven Henderson.
