Comment by vlovich123
9 hours ago
For how much cost? The range of the ship is already handled well by the batteries. An extra 5-10% isn’t going to meaningfully add value nor reduce fuel costs. There’s no way to recapture the capital expenditure such solar panels would require.
The 5-10% number is completely invented. I doubt it's half as high as 5%, but until and unless someone does the maths, there's no point in speculating.
The math has been done many times for solar panels on the roof of cars, and it's not worthwhile. Ships are not the same though.
At any rate, it's inevitably far more sensible to put a larger solar panel + battery installation at a fixed place on land, and charge vehicles from that.
Adding range reduction turn around time. Ship is making money while it is moving, not while it’s charging. Also why roro batteries make most sense.
I’m assuming that the boat gets charged fast enough for one way trip while passengers are loading. There’s no need for much more capacity beyond that.