Jeff Turner’s Mirage prepares to launch from the Sitka Marine, marking history as the state’s first commercial fishing boat hybrid.
The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) has been working to hybridize Alaska’s fishing fleets since receiving a grant from the Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technology Office (VTO) in 2021. From 2021-2023, ALFA partnered with the National Research Energy Laboratory to “identify that the viable next step is a hybrid diesel/electric boat.”
On October 3, 2023, ALFA announced that they had received a $700,000 grant from the Department of Energy for furthering their commercial fleet conversion project. The project became known as the “ALFA Boat Energy Transition Accelerator (BETA)” project.
According to the press release, the ALFA BETA project “aligns with ALFA’s mission to address climate change and decarbonize the seafood industry.” Although ALFA focuses on addressing environmental concerns, ALFA also highlights that hybridization “offer[s] economic benefits to fishermen and mariculturists. The adoption of advanced propulsion technologies will reduce operational costs and increase fleet performance.”
Regardless of opinion on environmental impact, Alaskan fishermen face pressing financial concerns that motivate some to implement modernized technology. According to Ben Matthys, who has been working on installing the hybrid engine in Mirage: “The margins for fishing are getting tighter. The price per pound of what people can market the fish for, or what’s purchased at the plant, is lower, and fuel and all operating costs are higher… So as we move forward to the next options to save and become more profitable, this is it.”
The original plan in 2023 was to install a Transfluid clutch, electric motor, and batteries on Eric Jordan’s troller, the I Gotta. However, Jordan withdrew his vessel for personal reasons. ALFA sought a new vessel for its project and decided on Jeff Turner’s Mirage.
According to Chandler Kemp, the project’s Energy Efficiency Consultant: “The percent fuel savings will be lower for an operating profile like the Mirage than for the I Gotta.” However, he estimates approximately 20 percent fuel savings for the Mirage plus reduced wear and tear on the main engine.
The boat’s owner, Jeff Turner, explains his thought-processing for volunteering his vessel for the project: “Hybridization, for me, started with, ‘Oh my god, I’m spending so much on fuel. There’s got to be a better way. This grant money came up and there was interest…I raised my hand and said, ‘I’ll try this.”
After the Mirage hits the water, a gillnetter from Juneau will receive an electric propulsion system and a Kodiak mariculture vessel will be converted to fully electric.
My experience with vehicular conversions is that it doesn’t really pencil very well unless you have a machine that already needs repowering. Hopefully we are targeting those vessels first as the these initial experiments are bound to be costly and as such we should try to get the most bang for our buck as well as get rid of the vessels that are probably among the bigger polluters.
A free $700,000 DoE grant helps it pencil out well for everybody but the taxpayer.
Exactly
More of my tax money down the tube.
Alternative energy ideas don’t/can’t work without .gov paying part of it.
True story.
How much does this cost? Are the companies producing the parts solvent and be around tomorrow when problems arise? The cost of fuel will seem like pocket change compared to fixing/replacing hybrid parts, if they can be replaced or fixed at all.
Hmmm… shipping electric cars on boats causes them to light on fire and sink the boat. Now you are building an electric boat. Good luck.
Diesel/ Electric technology has been around for decades now in the maritime world. Be interesting to see if the numbers pencil out for smaller vessel applications. My gut feeling is that they won’t!
It goes back to before WW2. The subs were hybrids , but they needed to be to be mobile underwater. The difference being the battery tech of the time was very different. Lead-acid vs lithium
Smoke on the water…
Just a waste of taxpayers money going to the democrats green backers. I call it the democrats version of trickle down economics.
Electricity and water are a bad mix. No room for error or accidents. Greater chance of Fatalities.
Especially salt water!
Research toward a sustainable future is tax money well spent.
It worked so well with Solyndra, Evan. Hundreds of millions and nothing produced, other than greased palms. I suppose you consider that well spent. Your pals got our monry
Strike oars …those boats are going to need them.
A single ruptured lithium battery on a fishing boat will get wet and once it does any survivor will have a different view of hybridization.
For a youtube video of water and lithium batteries copy and past this search term into your search bar:
What Happens When Lithium Meets Water? | The Shocking Science Behind Battery Safety
Mirage is certainly the appropriate name. A very upper-crust cruise ship, the Raould Amundsen sometimes comes to Alaska, and it touts being a hybrid. I asked the captain how well that worked and he said it’s all for show: It can travel for 30 minutes, at most, at only 3 knots when on electric. The ship also has on board an electron microscope, and apparently that is also for show. The cruise costs $1,000 per passenger, double occupancy, for an inside-looking cabin, and all passengers are told they are contributing to science (climate change research and the like) AND each passenger is given a wonderful orange float-coat with the ship logo prominently displayed. On the other hand, so far as I know the US taxpayer in no way subsidizes this cruise. When will US taxpayers wake up about human-caused climate change, wasteful Congressional spending, and general beltway corruption?
wont run without diesel, batteries may reduce spike energy loss but is it worth the risk. fire hazard and pollution risks.
there is no such thing as renewable energy.
Boats are a different story there is no coasting only constant thrust, So very different than cars or trains.
and how do you fix it when the maker is no longer making.
life time warranty only last as long as the company!
Not worth the gamble
The number of electrical fires in battery cars seems to be a bit high. As far as I know we still can’t recycle lithium batteries. So we got the cart in front of the horse again.