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Electrifying Workboats

Today’s boat designers are looking to address urgent goals for sustainability and are taking cues from other transport industries, exploring the potential for hybrid and all-electric technology in workboats. The challenge is achieving it on such a massive power scale; the average workboat runs at 5,000 to 10,000 hp, compared to about 200 hp for an average gas-powered car.

Naval architects are looking for technical partners that can partner with them to meet current design needs while facilitating an eventual migration away from classic diesel drives. While the marine industry is in the early stages of this switch, it’s a trend influencing the design of all future workboats.

“Our conversations with engine makers, thruster and propulsion experts and virtually all workboat systems suppliers go the same way,” Rebucci says. “They ask how we can help with their hybrid or electrification journey. It’s a priority for two reasons — to meet geopolitical priorities for preserving the environment, and to help operators work more efficiently as they handle increasingly big jobs.”

Big jobs include erecting the largest and most powerful wind turbines ever imagined, at sea. A new generation of workboats not yet built will install turbines that are already more than 853 feet (260 meters) tall with rotor blades 721 feet (220 meters) across. It’s an example of how one industry’s advancements can drive the need for a technical revolution in another.

Timken’s extensive power transmission expertise benefits ship designers and builders as they create a new generation of more efficient, safer and sustainable workboats. The company’s leading team of engineers solve power transmission challenges in propulsion and auxiliary systems, from bow to stern. The result is a systems approach by people who comprehend the inner workings of an entire ship, whatever its job.