Sanyo is finding something interesting to do with laptop computer batteries; power a car carrier while it’s at port. It’s working with a Japanese shipping company to develop an auxiliary power source for a roll-on, roll-off ship so that it doesn’t have to run its regular engines to power internal ship systems while at port; the batteries are expected to save 6.5% of fuel used on a normal RORO vessel.
That level of savings would most likely apply to shorter-haul ferry-type operations, which would be common going between the islands of Japan; it wouldn’t be as much of a factor for intercontinental shipping of cars for the export market. However, such ships would be good sellers for island-hopping ferries in Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia, not to mention the Dover-Calais run across the English Channel; Hawaiian and Alaskan car transport ferries could be customers in the US.
The battery system is slated to be made up of 644,000 small laptop-style batteries charged from a solar grid; since Sanyo is an battery maker, this would give them a great market to sell into, where they can make the equivalent of supplying a half-million laptops in one sale.
People are trying to keep vehicles from having to keep the engines running while parked; many products have been introduced to provide heat and air conditioning to trucks while parked and this allows ships to have power while moored as well. This, or something similar, might be put on RORO ships in the not too distant future.
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-a...sel-705492.html
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