Batteries combined with the Rhodium EMS
“Savannah is a yacht full of premiers,” emphasises Feadship director Henk de Vries. “As the first ever hybrid superyacht, she offers incredible flexibility in operations and loading of the power plant. The result is fuel savings of some thirty per cent compared to the best boats that we have launched up to this point.”
The powerplant onboard was complimented with a 1MW battery and a DC distribution system. To control and optimize the powerplant to its full benefits, the system is controlled by the Rhodium Energy Management System (EMS). “Our energy management system optimizes energy generation by operating the diesel generators at their most efficient point, made possible by the batteries,” RHM consultant Despoina Mitropoulou.
In 2015, Mitropoulou also spoke of remaining challenges. “The trade-off between power plant capability and weight/volume is one. But we see that the leisure industry is a real driver for hybrid systems development. Our clients realize that hybrid is the future. For every project the hybrid design solution is on the table—it’s here to stay.”
2015 until now
And she was right: Since that moment an increasing number of luxury superyachts were delivered with a battery solution and Energy Management System. Over the last 7 years, RH Marine alone has already supplied storage solutions for more than a dozen yachts. Storage technology is increasingly becoming more efficient and the control systems are getting more sophisticated.
Future of hybrid technology onboard yachts
We expect the share of hybrid systems to continue to rise in the coming years. We also expect to see even more alternative configurations. One of the examples of this is a system which RH Marine has supplied for another yacht. Here, batteries were combined with a mictroturbine to allow even further emission reductions.
Contact us if you would like to discuss further options for energy reductions such as battery solutions, the Rhodium EMS or alternative ways of energy generation.
This showcase has been inspired on the press release Feadship published on the 25th of januari 2015 during the launch of MY Savannah.