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India’s first solar ferry. Guess daily operating cost. Just ₹200.
- The Aditya, from Navalt Boats, is a sun-powered commuter ferry The boat makes 22 trips with 75 people on board – that’s 580,000 people a year
Aditya, India’s first solar ferry, was built by NavAlt Solar & Electric Boats, for Kerala State Water Transport Department. This ferry is the first commercially viable mode of transport powered by solar energy in India and the world.
Aditya, from Navalt Boats has a seating capacity of 75 passengers and on a bright sunny day can cruise for more than 6 hours without the need for external charge. The ferry is manufactured for Kerala State Water Transportation Department. It is built under IRS (Indian Register of Shipping) class with highest safety standards and reliability.
The cost of Aditya was ₹1.95 Cr (At 2013 tender price). Now years later such a boat would be 3.5 Cr.). A diesel ferry with similar capacity (75 passenger), build under IR class (or any other IACS (International Association of Classification Societies) member class) was around ₹1.5 Cr.
In 2014, NavAlt team started designing a solar ferry with advanced materials and improved designing techniques. We used lighter materials like GRP and Aluminium reduced the weight drastically. With the help of advanced design techniques like computational fluid dynamics the vessel drag to 1/3rd of a size ferry.
The Aditya, from Navalt Boats, is a sun-powered commuter ferry The boat makes 22 trips with 75 people on board – that’s 580,000 people a year – and the charging cost to top up the batteries is US$2.60 – two dollars and sixty cents a day – preventing the burning of 58,000 litres of diesel and saving ₹ 4,612,000 – US$ 65,000 a year.
A typical ferry boat operating across the backwater in Vaikom-Thavanakkadavu sector, a distance of 2.8 km, charges only 4 rupees for the journey one side. Each trip take about 13-15 minutes (at speed of 10-12 km/hr). If it operates from 7 AM to 7 PM, taking 22 trips, and having sufficient time for passenger embarkation and breaks for crew, it would need about 100 litres of diesel (at 10 litres/hr). It is the cost of fuel for running the boat and its systems i.e., running both main and auxiliary engines.
There are three kind of maintenance activity. The first type is exclusively for diesel engines. This include replacement of consumables like lube oil and filters as well as engine overhaul charges – both of which are regularly done every 45 days for diesel ferries.
For solar ferry, without any engines, this is not there. On an average the maintenance cost is about 3% for lube oil and 7% for filters and engine overhaul of fuel cost. The total is about ₹604 per day. In the first year this was ₹2,10,243.
The second type is the cost of replacing the battery cells. The propulsion battery has a warranty of five years. However based on the battery discharge level the replacement cycle for the battery would be seven years.
It is important to note that at this time, the storage capacity of the battery is expected to be 80% of the new one, and not that it becomes unusable. The replacement cost of the cells is expected to be ₹25 lakhs at the current price.
This would be lower considering the annual reduction in price of lithium cells due to increased adoption of electric vehicles. The third type is cost of replacing or repairing damaged parts, equipment and cost of maintaining the boat in good condition. It is assumed that this is similar in both boats and hence not considered.
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First Published:30 May 2022, 12:35 PM IST
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