Tesvolt spin-off develops battery storage for electric ships

Commercial and industrial energy storage company Tesvolt and Norwegian business Ocean Batteries have produced battery systems for electric ships.

Joint venture (JV) Tesvolt Ocean has developed a battery system whose modules can be installed individually throughout a ship, making optimal use of the often limited space on vessels.

The Tesvolt Marine Systems subsidiary of Lutherstadt Wittenberg-based Tesvolt, which holds 51% stake in the JV, has already equipped 160 ships with battery systems.

Tesvolt says the “Kaptein” system offers the highest volumetric energy density on the market, with 246 kWh per liter. The product’s joint developer says the Kaptein is the only maritime system to offer a continuous C-rate – the ratio of charge or discharge current of a cell in amperes to the capacity of the cell in ampere hours – of 4. With most shipping-related batteries having a continuous C-rate of less than 2, according to Tesvolt, the Kaptein offers shorter charging times.

“Every customer has different goals,” said Tesvolt Ocean CEO Øystein Kjæreng. “That’s why we always tailor our power storage system precisely to the respective customer. Kaptein is not an off-the-shelf product. Thanks to the special cell-to-module design, Kaptein is, nevertheless, particularly cost-efficient compared to the market. With our offer, we want to make a significant contribution to accelerating the equipping of shipping with clean electric drives – and do so as conveniently and inexpensively as possible.”

From pv magazine Deutschland.