🕷️ Crawler Inspector

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Direct Parameter Lookup

Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 59 (from laksa003)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa059.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://spectrum.ieee.org/electric-container-ships-are-stuck-on-the-horizon\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://spectrum.ieee.org/electric-container-ships-are-stuck-on-the-horizon\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/electric-container-ships-are-stuck-on-the-horizon","crawl_time":1775018951,"first_indexed_time":1627594562,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"org,ieee!spectrum,\/electric-container-ships-are-stuck-on-the-horizon s443","src_root_hash":"14926137086977277859","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"Electric Container Ships Are Stuck on the Horizon - IEEE Spectrum","meta_descriptions":["Batteries still can’t scale up to power the world’s biggest vessels"],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"Illustration: Anders Wenngren\nJust about everything\nyou wear or use around the house once sat in steel boxes on ships whose\ndiesel\nengines propel them from Asia, emitting particulates and carbon dioxide. Surely, you would think, we can do better.\nAfter all, we’ve had electric locomotives for more than a century and high-speed electric trains for more than half a century, and recently we have been expanding the global fleet of\nelectric cars\n. Why not get electric container ships? Actually, the first one should begin to operate this year: the\nYara Birkeland\n, built by Marin Teknikk, in\nNorway\n, is not only the world’s first electric-powered, zero-emissions\ncontainer ship\nbut also the first autonomous commercial vessel.\nBut don’t write off giant diesel-powered container ships and their critical role in a globalized economy just yet. Here is a back-of-the-envelope calculation that explains why.\nContainers come in different sizes, but most are the standard twenty-foot equivalent units (\nTEU\n)—rectangular prisms 6.1 meters (20 feet) long and 2.4 meters wide. The first small container ships of the 1960s carried mere hundreds of TEUs; now\nMaersk’s Triple-E class ships\nload 18,000 TEUs, and OOCL\nHong Kong\nholds the record, at 21,413. At the “\nsuper slow steaming,\n” fuel-saving speed of 16 knots, these ships can make the journey from Hong Kong to Hamburg in 31 days.\nNow look at the Yara Birkeland. It will carry just 120 TEU, its service speed will be 6 knots, its longest intended operation will be 30 nautical miles—between Herøya and Larvik, in Norway—and its\nbatteries\nwill deliver 7 to 9 megawatt hours. Today’s state-of-the-art diesel container vessels thus carry 150 times as many boxes over distances 400 times as long at speeds three to four times as fast as the pioneering electric ship can handle.\nWhat would it take to make an electric ship that can carry 18,000 TEUs? In a 31-day trip,\ntoday’s efficient diesel vessel\nburns 4,650 metric tons of fuel (bunker or diesel), each ton packing\n42 gigajoules\n. That’s an\nenergy density\nof about 11,700 watt-hours per kilogram, versus 300 Wh\/kg for today’s lithium-ion batteries, a nearly 40-fold difference.\nThe total fuel demand for the trip is about 195 terajoules, or 54 gigawatt-hours. Large diesels (and those in the ships are the largest we have) are about 50 percent efficient, hence their useful propulsive energy demand is about 27 GWh. To match that demand, large\nelectric motors\noperating at 90 percent efficiency would need about 30 GWh of electricity.\nLoad the ship with today’s best commercial Li-ion batteries (300 Wh\/kg) and still it would have to carry about 100,000 metric tons of them to go nonstop from Asia to Europe in 31 days. Those batteries alone would take up about 40 percent of maximum cargo capacity, an economically ruinous proposition, never mind the difficulties involved in charging and operating the ship. And even if we push batteries to an energy density of 500 Wh\/kg sooner than might be expected, an 18,000-TEU vessel would still need nearly 60,000 metric tons of them for a long intercontinental voyage at a relatively slow speed.\nThe conclusion is obvious. To have an electric ship whose batteries and\nmotors\nweighed no more than the fuel (about 5,000 metric tons) and the diesel engine (about 2,000 metric tons) in today’s large container vessels, we would need batteries with an energy density more than 10 times as high as today’s best Li-ion units.\nThat’s a tall order indeed: In the past 70 years the energy density of the best commercial batteries\nhasn’t even quadrupled\n.\nThis article appears in the March 2019 print issue as “Electric Container Ships Are a Hard Sail.”","attrs_markdown":"[IEEE.org](https:\/\/www.ieee.org\/)[IEEE Xplore Digital Library](https:\/\/ieeexplore.ieee.org\/Xplore\/home.jsp)[IEEE Standards](https:\/\/standards.ieee.org\/)[More Sites](https:\/\/www.ieee.org\/sitemap.html)\n\n[Sign In](https:\/\/www.ieee.org\/profile\/public\/createwebaccount\/showCreateAccount.html?ShowMGAMarkeatbilityOptIn=true&sourceCode=spectrum&signinurl=https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/core\/saml\/main\/login&url=https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/&autoSignin=Y&car=IEEE-Spectrum)[Join IEEE](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/join)\n\nElectric Container Ships Are Stuck on the Horizon\n\nShare\n\nFOR THE TECHNOLOGY INSIDER\n\nExplore by topic\n\n[Aerospace](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/aerospace\/)[AI](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/artificial-intelligence\/)[Biomedical](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/biomedical\/)[Climate Tech](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/climate-tech\/)[Computing](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/computing\/)[Consumer Electronics](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/consumer-electronics\/)[Energy](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/energy\/)[History of Technology](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/tech-history\/)[Robotics](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/robotics\/)[Semiconductors](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/semiconductors\/)[Telecommunications](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/telecommunications\/)[Transportation](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/transportation\/)\n\n[IEEE Spectrum](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/)\n\nFOR THE TECHNOLOGY INSIDER\n\n### Topics\n[Aerospace](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/aerospace\/)[AI](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/artificial-intelligence\/)[Biomedical](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/biomedical\/)[Climate Tech](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/climate-tech\/)[Computing](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/computing\/)[Consumer Electronics](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/consumer-electronics\/)[Energy](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/energy\/)[History of Technology](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/tech-history\/)[Robotics](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/robotics\/)[Semiconductors](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/semiconductors\/)[Telecommunications](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/telecommunications\/)[Transportation](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/transportation\/)\n\n### Sections\n[Features](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/type\/feature\/)[News](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/type\/news\/)[Opinion](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/type\/opinion\/)[Careers](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/careers\/)[DIY](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/diy\/)[Engineering Resources](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/engineering-resources\/)\n\n### More\n[Newsletters](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/newsletters\/)[Special Reports](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/special-reports\/)[Collections](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/collections\/)[Explainers](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/type\/explainer\/)[Top Programming Languages](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/top-programming-languages)[Robots Guide ↗](https:\/\/robotsguide.com\/)[IEEE Job Site ↗](https:\/\/jobs.ieee.org\/)\n\n### For IEEE Members\n[Current Issue](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/magazine\/current-issue)[Magazine Archive](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/magazine\/)[The Institute](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/the-institute\/)[The Institute Archive](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/the-institute\/ti-archive\/)\n\n### For IEEE Members\n[Current Issue](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/magazine\/current-issue)[Magazine Archive](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/magazine\/)[The Institute](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/the-institute\/)[The Institute Archive](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/the-institute\/ti-archive\/)\n\n### IEEE Spectrum\n[About Us](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/about)[Contact Us](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/contact)[Reprints & Permissions ↗](https:\/\/www.parsintl.com\/publications\/ieee-media\/)[Advertising ↗](https:\/\/advertise.ieee.org\/%20)\n### Follow IEEE Spectrum\n### Support IEEE Spectrum\n*IEEE Spectrum* is the flagship publication of the IEEE — the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences. 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For more exclusive content and features, consider [Joining IEEE](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/join) .\n## Join the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences and get access to all of Spectrum’s articles, archives, PDF downloads, and other benefits. [Learn more about IEEE →](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/join)\n## Join the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences and get access to this e-book plus all of *IEEE Spectrum’s* articles, archives, PDF downloads, and other benefits. [Learn more about IEEE →](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/join)\n[CREATE AN ACCOUNT](https:\/\/www.ieee.org\/profile\/public\/createwebaccount\/showCreateAccount.html?ShowMGAMarkeatbilityOptIn=true&sourceCode=spectrum&signinurl=https%3A%2F%2Fspectrum.ieee.org%2Fcore%2Fsaml%2Fmain%2Flogin%3Fnext_url%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fspectrum.ieee.org%2Fcore%2Fintegrations%2Fieee%2Fchanges%0A&url=https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/&autoSignin=Y&car=IEEE-Spectrum)[SIGN IN](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/core\/saml\/main\/login?next_url=https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/core\/integrations\/ieee\/changes)\n\n[JOIN IEEE](https:\/\/www.ieee.org\/membership-application\/public\/join.html?promo=JOINLITE&style=SPECTRUM&joinlite=TRUE)[SIGN IN](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/core\/saml\/main\/login?next_url=https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/core\/integrations\/ieee\/changes)\n\n[Close]()\n\n## Access Thousands of Articles — Completely Free\n## Create an account and get exclusive content and features: **Save articles, download collections,** and **post comments** — all free! For full access and benefits,  [subscribe](https:\/\/ieee.dragonforms.com\/spectrum_subscribe)  to *Spectrum*.\n[CREATE AN ACCOUNT](https:\/\/www.ieee.org\/profile\/public\/createwebaccount\/showCreateAccount.html?ShowMGAMarkeatbilityOptIn=true&sourceCode=spectrum3c&signinurl=https%3A%2F%2Fspectrum.ieee.org%2Fcore%2Fsaml%2Fmain%2Flogin%3Fnext_url%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fspectrum.ieee.org%2Fcore%2Fintegrations%2Fieee%2Fchanges%0A&url=https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/&autoSignin=Y&car=IEEE-Spectrum)[SIGN IN](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/core\/saml\/main\/login?next_url=https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/core\/integrations\/ieee\/changes)\n\n[Transportation](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/transportation\/)[News](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/type\/news\/)\n\n# Electric Container Ships Are Stuck on the Horizon\n## Batteries still can’t scale up to power the world’s biggest vessels\n[Vaclav Smil](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/u\/vaclav-smil)\n\n27 Feb 2019\n\n3 min read\n\n![Illustration: Anders Wenngren](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/media-library\/illustration-anders-wenngren.jpg?id=25587853&width=1200&height=900)\n\nIllustration: Anders Wenngren\n\n![illustration of container ship](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/media-library\/illustration-of-container-ship.jpg?id=25587854&width=600&quality=85)Illustration: Anders Wenngren\n\n**Just about everything** you wear or use around the house once sat in steel boxes on ships whose [diesel](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/diesel) engines propel them from Asia, emitting particulates and carbon dioxide. Surely, you would think, we can do better.\n\nAfter all, we’ve had electric locomotives for more than a century and high-speed electric trains for more than half a century, and recently we have been expanding the global fleet of [electric cars](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/electric-cars). Why not get electric container ships? Actually, the first one should begin to operate this year: the [Yara Birkeland](https:\/\/www.km.kongsberg.com\/ks\/web\/nokbg0240.nsf\/AllWeb\/4B8113B707A50A4FC125811D00407045?OpenDocument), built by Marin Teknikk, in [Norway](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/norway), is not only the world’s first electric-powered, zero-emissions [container ship](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/container-ship) but also the first autonomous commercial vessel.\n\nBut don’t write off giant diesel-powered container ships and their critical role in a globalized economy just yet. Here is a back-of-the-envelope calculation that explains why.\n\nContainers come in different sizes, but most are the standard twenty-foot equivalent units ([TEU](https:\/\/marinenotes.blogspot.com\/2012\/06\/what-is-teu-twenty-foot-equivalent-unit.html))—rectangular prisms 6.1 meters (20 feet) long and 2.4 meters wide. The first small container ships of the 1960s carried mere hundreds of TEUs; now [Maersk’s Triple-E class ships](https:\/\/www.marineinsight.com\/future-shipping\/maersks-triple-e-vessels-the-worlds-largest-container-ships-might-change-the-face-of-shipping-industry\/) load 18,000 TEUs, and OOCL [Hong Kong](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/hong-kong) holds the record, at 21,413. At the “[super slow steaming,](https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/322081814_Decision_Making_of_Full_Speed_Slow_Steaming_Extra_Slow_Steaming_and_Super_Slow_Steaming_using_TOPSIS)” fuel-saving speed of 16 knots, these ships can make the journey from Hong Kong to Hamburg in 31 days.\n\nNow look at the Yara Birkeland. It will carry just 120 TEU, its service speed will be 6 knots, its longest intended operation will be 30 nautical miles—between Herøya and Larvik, in Norway—and its [batteries](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/batteries) will deliver 7 to 9 megawatt hours. Today’s state-of-the-art diesel container vessels thus carry 150 times as many boxes over distances 400 times as long at speeds three to four times as fast as the pioneering electric ship can handle.\n\nWhat would it take to make an electric ship that can carry 18,000 TEUs? In a 31-day trip, [today’s efficient diesel vessel](https:\/\/transportgeography.org\/?page_id=5955) burns 4,650 metric tons of fuel (bunker or diesel), each ton packing [42 gigajoules](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tonne_of_oil_equivalent). That’s an [energy density](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/energy-density) of about 11,700 watt-hours per kilogram, versus 300 Wh\/kg for today’s lithium-ion batteries, a nearly 40-fold difference.\n\nThe total fuel demand for the trip is about 195 terajoules, or 54 gigawatt-hours. Large diesels (and those in the ships are the largest we have) are about 50 percent efficient, hence their useful propulsive energy demand is about 27 GWh. To match that demand, large [electric motors](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/electric-motors) operating at 90 percent efficiency would need about 30 GWh of electricity.\n\nLoad the ship with today’s best commercial Li-ion batteries (300 Wh\/kg) and still it would have to carry about 100,000 metric tons of them to go nonstop from Asia to Europe in 31 days. Those batteries alone would take up about 40 percent of maximum cargo capacity, an economically ruinous proposition, never mind the difficulties involved in charging and operating the ship. And even if we push batteries to an energy density of 500 Wh\/kg sooner than might be expected, an 18,000-TEU vessel would still need nearly 60,000 metric tons of them for a long intercontinental voyage at a relatively slow speed.\n\nThe conclusion is obvious. To have an electric ship whose batteries and [motors](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/motors) weighed no more than the fuel (about 5,000 metric tons) and the diesel engine (about 2,000 metric tons) in today’s large container vessels, we would need batteries with an energy density more than 10 times as high as today’s best Li-ion units.\n\nThat’s a tall order indeed: In the past 70 years the energy density of the best commercial batteries [hasn’t even quadrupled](https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=%22Fig.+1+History+of+development+of+primary+batteries+in+view+of+energy+density.+Data+is+taken+from+literature.5%22&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS773US774&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=Y0bw-OMzjNv9VM%253A%252C80nwQVJUmI_I0M%252C_&usg=AI4_-kR0N1U6kN8CnPajMnR8F5jG7Nbn3g&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwix_dvd38_gAhXLhOAKHQNEDfMQ9QEwAHoECAAQBA#imgrc=Y0bw-OMzjNv9VM:).\n\n*This article appears in the March 2019 print issue as “Electric Container Ships Are a Hard Sail.”*\n\nFrom Your Site Articles\n\n- [Arc Boats Takes a Page from Tesla - IEEE Spectrum ›](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/electric-boats)\n- [Electric Boats: Aquaculture's Quiet Coastal Shift - IEEE Spectrum ›](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/electric-boats-aquaculture)\n- [Electric Boat's 5,016 Batteries Drive Maritime Shift - IEEE Spectrum ›](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/electric-boat-battery-ship-ferry)\n\n[marine](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/marine)[vehicle efficiency](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/vehicle-efficiency)[electric vehicles](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/electric-vehicles)[container ship](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/container-ship)[lithium-ion battery](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/lithium-ion-battery)[electric boat](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/electric-boat)\n\n[Vaclav Smil](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/u\/vaclav-smil)\n\n[Vaclav Smil](https:\/\/vaclavsmil.com\/) writes Numbers Don’t Lie, *IEEE Spectrum*'s column devoted to the quantitative analysis of the material world. Smil does interdisciplinary research focused primarily on energy, technical innovation, environmental and population change, food and nutrition, and on historical aspects of these developments. He has published [40 books](http:\/\/vaclavsmil.com\/category\/books\/) and nearly 500 papers on these topics. He is a [distinguished professor emeritus](http:\/\/vaclavsmil.com\/) at the University of Manitoba and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Science Academy). In 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the [top 100 global thinkers](https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2010\/11\/28\/the-fp-top-100-global-thinkers-6\/), in 2013 he was appointed as a Member of the [Order of Canada](https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/news\/archive\/2014\/05\/order-canada-investiture-ceremony.html), and in 2015 he received an [OPEC Award](https:\/\/www.opec.org\/opec_web\/en\/3040.htm#:~:text=Vaclav%20Smil%2C%20Distinguished%20Professor%20Emeritus,of%20energy%20economics%20and%20petroleum.&text=The%20OPEC%20Award%20for%20Research%20was%20first%20given%20in%202004.) for research on energy. He has also worked as a consultant for many U.S., EU and international institutions, has been an invited speaker in more than 400 conferences and workshops and has lectured at many universities in North America, Europe, and Asia (particularly in Japan).\n\nThe Conversation (0)\n\nPublish\n\nSort by\n\n[![Three men seated on-stage underneath a large presentation screen. One of the men is holding a microphone while speaking to the audience below.](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/media-library\/three-men-seated-on-stage-underneath-a-large-presentation-screen-one-of-the-men-is-holding-a-microphone-while-speaking-to-the-a.jpg?id=65416492&width=600&quality=85)](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/invences-startup-telecom-networks)\n\n[The Institute](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/the-institute\/)[IEEE Member News](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/the-institute\/collections\/ieee-member-news\/)[Careers](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/careers\/)[Profile](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/type\/profile\/)[Telecommunications](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/telecommunications\/)\n\n## [Invences Empowers Small Businesses With Smart Telecom Networks](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/invences-startup-telecom-networks)\n14h\n\n4 min read\n\n[![An optical ground station built on a rooftop. Residential skyscrapers, pockets of greenery and a clear blue sky fill the background.](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/media-library\/an-optical-ground-station-built-on-a-rooftop-residential-skyscrapers-pockets-of-greenery-and-a-clear-blue-sky-fill-the-backgro.jpg?id=65404031&width=600&height=750&quality=85)](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/satellite-communication-laser-radio-transcelestial)\n\n[Telecommunications](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/telecommunications\/)[Aerospace](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/aerospace\/)[News](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/type\/news\/)\n\n## [Could space-to-ground lasers replace fiber-optic cables in the future?](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/satellite-communication-laser-radio-transcelestial)\n17h\n\n5 min read\n\n2\n\n[![Overhead view of two data center pods, each measuring 55 feet long by 12.5 feet wide.](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/media-library\/overhead-view-of-two-data-center-pods-each-measuring-55-feet-long-by-12-5-feet-wide.jpg?id=65417343&width=600&quality=85)](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/modular-data-center)\n\n[Computing](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/computing\/)[AI](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/artificial-intelligence\/)[News](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/type\/news\/)\n\n## [The AI Data Centers That Fit on a Truck](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/modular-data-center)\n18h\n\n3 min read\n\n1\n\n## Related Stories\n[Magazine](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/magazine\/)[Transportation](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/transportation\/)[Analysis](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/type\/analysis\/)[August 2021](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/magazine\/2021\/august\/)\n\n## [Boats Should Be Sleek—But Only Up to a Point](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/boats-should-be-sleek-but-only-up-to-a-point)\n\n[Transportation](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/transportation\/)[March 2021](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/magazine\/2021\/march\/)[Feature](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/type\/feature\/)[Climate Tech](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/climate-tech\/)[Climate Change](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/collections\/climate-change\/)\n\n## [Why the Shipping Industry Is Betting Big on Ammonia](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/why-the-shipping-industry-is-betting-big-on-ammonia)\n\n[Transportation](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/topic\/transportation\/)[News](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/type\/news\/)\n\n## [MIT Unveils a Roboat Big Enough to Stand on](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/mit-unveils-a-roboat-big-enough-to-stand-on)","attrs_readable_markdown":"![illustration of container ship](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/media-library\/illustration-of-container-ship.jpg?id=25587854&width=600&quality=85)Illustration: Anders Wenngren\n\n**Just about everything** you wear or use around the house once sat in steel boxes on ships whose [diesel](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/diesel) engines propel them from Asia, emitting particulates and carbon dioxide. Surely, you would think, we can do better.\n\nAfter all, we’ve had electric locomotives for more than a century and high-speed electric trains for more than half a century, and recently we have been expanding the global fleet of [electric cars](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/electric-cars). Why not get electric container ships? Actually, the first one should begin to operate this year: the [Yara Birkeland](https:\/\/www.km.kongsberg.com\/ks\/web\/nokbg0240.nsf\/AllWeb\/4B8113B707A50A4FC125811D00407045?OpenDocument), built by Marin Teknikk, in [Norway](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/norway), is not only the world’s first electric-powered, zero-emissions [container ship](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/container-ship) but also the first autonomous commercial vessel.\n\nBut don’t write off giant diesel-powered container ships and their critical role in a globalized economy just yet. Here is a back-of-the-envelope calculation that explains why.\n\nContainers come in different sizes, but most are the standard twenty-foot equivalent units ([TEU](https:\/\/marinenotes.blogspot.com\/2012\/06\/what-is-teu-twenty-foot-equivalent-unit.html))—rectangular prisms 6.1 meters (20 feet) long and 2.4 meters wide. The first small container ships of the 1960s carried mere hundreds of TEUs; now [Maersk’s Triple-E class ships](https:\/\/www.marineinsight.com\/future-shipping\/maersks-triple-e-vessels-the-worlds-largest-container-ships-might-change-the-face-of-shipping-industry\/) load 18,000 TEUs, and OOCL [Hong Kong](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/hong-kong) holds the record, at 21,413. At the “[super slow steaming,](https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/322081814_Decision_Making_of_Full_Speed_Slow_Steaming_Extra_Slow_Steaming_and_Super_Slow_Steaming_using_TOPSIS)” fuel-saving speed of 16 knots, these ships can make the journey from Hong Kong to Hamburg in 31 days.\n\nNow look at the Yara Birkeland. It will carry just 120 TEU, its service speed will be 6 knots, its longest intended operation will be 30 nautical miles—between Herøya and Larvik, in Norway—and its [batteries](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/batteries) will deliver 7 to 9 megawatt hours. Today’s state-of-the-art diesel container vessels thus carry 150 times as many boxes over distances 400 times as long at speeds three to four times as fast as the pioneering electric ship can handle.\n\nWhat would it take to make an electric ship that can carry 18,000 TEUs? In a 31-day trip, [today’s efficient diesel vessel](https:\/\/transportgeography.org\/?page_id=5955) burns 4,650 metric tons of fuel (bunker or diesel), each ton packing [42 gigajoules](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tonne_of_oil_equivalent). That’s an [energy density](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/energy-density) of about 11,700 watt-hours per kilogram, versus 300 Wh\/kg for today’s lithium-ion batteries, a nearly 40-fold difference.\n\nThe total fuel demand for the trip is about 195 terajoules, or 54 gigawatt-hours. Large diesels (and those in the ships are the largest we have) are about 50 percent efficient, hence their useful propulsive energy demand is about 27 GWh. To match that demand, large [electric motors](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/electric-motors) operating at 90 percent efficiency would need about 30 GWh of electricity.\n\nLoad the ship with today’s best commercial Li-ion batteries (300 Wh\/kg) and still it would have to carry about 100,000 metric tons of them to go nonstop from Asia to Europe in 31 days. Those batteries alone would take up about 40 percent of maximum cargo capacity, an economically ruinous proposition, never mind the difficulties involved in charging and operating the ship. And even if we push batteries to an energy density of 500 Wh\/kg sooner than might be expected, an 18,000-TEU vessel would still need nearly 60,000 metric tons of them for a long intercontinental voyage at a relatively slow speed.\n\nThe conclusion is obvious. To have an electric ship whose batteries and [motors](https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/tag\/motors) weighed no more than the fuel (about 5,000 metric tons) and the diesel engine (about 2,000 metric tons) in today’s large container vessels, we would need batteries with an energy density more than 10 times as high as today’s best Li-ion units.\n\nThat’s a tall order indeed: In the past 70 years the energy density of the best commercial batteries [hasn’t even quadrupled](https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=%22Fig.+1+History+of+development+of+primary+batteries+in+view+of+energy+density.+Data+is+taken+from+literature.5%22&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS773US774&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=Y0bw-OMzjNv9VM%253A%252C80nwQVJUmI_I0M%252C_&usg=AI4_-kR0N1U6kN8CnPajMnR8F5jG7Nbn3g&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwix_dvd38_gAhXLhOAKHQNEDfMQ9QEwAHoECAAQBA#imgrc=Y0bw-OMzjNv9VM:).\n\n*This article appears in the March 2019 print issue as “Electric Container Ships Are a Hard Sail.”*","meta_canonical":null}

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Boilerpipe Text	Illustration: Anders Wenngren Just about everything you wear or use around the house once sat in steel boxes on ships whose diesel engines propel them from Asia, emitting particulates and carbon dioxide. Surely, you would think, we can do better. After all, we’ve had electric locomotives for more than a century and high-speed electric trains for more than half a century, and recently we have been expanding the global fleet of electric cars . Why not get electric container ships? Actually, the first one should begin to operate this year: the Yara Birkeland , built by Marin Teknikk, in Norway , is not only the world’s first electric-powered, zero-emissions container ship but also the first autonomous commercial vessel. But don’t write off giant diesel-powered container ships and their critical role in a globalized economy just yet. Here is a back-of-the-envelope calculation that explains why. Containers come in different sizes, but most are the standard twenty-foot equivalent units ( TEU )—rectangular prisms 6.1 meters (20 feet) long and 2.4 meters wide. The first small container ships of the 1960s carried mere hundreds of TEUs; now Maersk’s Triple-E class ships load 18,000 TEUs, and OOCL Hong Kong holds the record, at 21,413. At the “ super slow steaming, ” fuel-saving speed of 16 knots, these ships can make the journey from Hong Kong to Hamburg in 31 days. Now look at the Yara Birkeland. It will carry just 120 TEU, its service speed will be 6 knots, its longest intended operation will be 30 nautical miles—between Herøya and Larvik, in Norway—and its batteries will deliver 7 to 9 megawatt hours. Today’s state-of-the-art diesel container vessels thus carry 150 times as many boxes over distances 400 times as long at speeds three to four times as fast as the pioneering electric ship can handle. What would it take to make an electric ship that can carry 18,000 TEUs? In a 31-day trip, today’s efficient diesel vessel burns 4,650 metric tons of fuel (bunker or diesel), each ton packing 42 gigajoules . That’s an energy density of about 11,700 watt-hours per kilogram, versus 300 Wh/kg for today’s lithium-ion batteries, a nearly 40-fold difference. The total fuel demand for the trip is about 195 terajoules, or 54 gigawatt-hours. Large diesels (and those in the ships are the largest we have) are about 50 percent efficient, hence their useful propulsive energy demand is about 27 GWh. To match that demand, large electric motors operating at 90 percent efficiency would need about 30 GWh of electricity. Load the ship with today’s best commercial Li-ion batteries (300 Wh/kg) and still it would have to carry about 100,000 metric tons of them to go nonstop from Asia to Europe in 31 days. Those batteries alone would take up about 40 percent of maximum cargo capacity, an economically ruinous proposition, never mind the difficulties involved in charging and operating the ship. And even if we push batteries to an energy density of 500 Wh/kg sooner than might be expected, an 18,000-TEU vessel would still need nearly 60,000 metric tons of them for a long intercontinental voyage at a relatively slow speed. The conclusion is obvious. To have an electric ship whose batteries and motors weighed no more than the fuel (about 5,000 metric tons) and the diesel engine (about 2,000 metric tons) in today’s large container vessels, we would need batteries with an energy density more than 10 times as high as today’s best Li-ion units. That’s a tall order indeed: In the past 70 years the energy density of the best commercial batteries hasn’t even quadrupled . This article appears in the March 2019 print issue as “Electric Container Ships Are a Hard Sail.”
Markdown	[IEEE.org](https://www.ieee.org/)[IEEE Xplore Digital Library](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/home.jsp)[IEEE Standards](https://standards.ieee.org/)[More Sites](https://www.ieee.org/sitemap.html) [Sign In](https://www.ieee.org/profile/public/createwebaccount/showCreateAccount.html?ShowMGAMarkeatbilityOptIn=true&sourceCode=spectrum&signinurl=https://spectrum.ieee.org/core/saml/main/login&url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/&autoSignin=Y&car=IEEE-Spectrum)[Join IEEE](https://spectrum.ieee.org/join) Electric Container Ships Are Stuck on the Horizon Share FOR THE TECHNOLOGY INSIDER Explore by topic [Aerospace](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/aerospace/)[AI](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/artificial-intelligence/)[Biomedical](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/biomedical/)[Climate Tech](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/climate-tech/)[Computing](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/computing/)[Consumer Electronics](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/consumer-electronics/)[Energy](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/energy/)[History of Technology](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/tech-history/)[Robotics](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/robotics/)[Semiconductors](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/semiconductors/)[Telecommunications](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/telecommunications/)[Transportation](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/transportation/) [IEEE Spectrum](https://spectrum.ieee.org/) FOR THE TECHNOLOGY INSIDER ### Topics [Aerospace](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/aerospace/)[AI](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/artificial-intelligence/)[Biomedical](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/biomedical/)[Climate Tech](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/climate-tech/)[Computing](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/computing/)[Consumer Electronics](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/consumer-electronics/)[Energy](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/energy/)[History of Technology](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/tech-history/)[Robotics](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/robotics/)[Semiconductors](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/semiconductors/)[Telecommunications](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/telecommunications/)[Transportation](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/transportation/) ### Sections [Features](https://spectrum.ieee.org/type/feature/)[News](https://spectrum.ieee.org/type/news/)[Opinion](https://spectrum.ieee.org/type/opinion/)[Careers](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/careers/)[DIY](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/diy/)[Engineering Resources](https://spectrum.ieee.org/engineering-resources/) ### More [Newsletters](https://spectrum.ieee.org/newsletters/)[Special Reports](https://spectrum.ieee.org/special-reports/)[Collections](https://spectrum.ieee.org/collections/)[Explainers](https://spectrum.ieee.org/type/explainer/)[Top Programming Languages](https://spectrum.ieee.org/top-programming-languages)[Robots Guide ↗](https://robotsguide.com/)[IEEE Job Site ↗](https://jobs.ieee.org/) ### For IEEE Members [Current Issue](https://spectrum.ieee.org/magazine/current-issue)[Magazine Archive](https://spectrum.ieee.org/magazine/)[The Institute](https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/)[The Institute Archive](https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/ti-archive/) ### For IEEE Members [Current Issue](https://spectrum.ieee.org/magazine/current-issue)[Magazine Archive](https://spectrum.ieee.org/magazine/)[The Institute](https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/)[The Institute Archive](https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/ti-archive/) ### IEEE Spectrum [About Us](https://spectrum.ieee.org/about)[Contact Us](https://spectrum.ieee.org/contact)[Reprints & Permissions ↗](https://www.parsintl.com/publications/ieee-media/)[Advertising ↗](https://advertise.ieee.org/%20) ### Follow IEEE Spectrum ### Support IEEE Spectrum IEEE Spectrum is the flagship publication of the IEEE — the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences. 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[CREATE AN ACCOUNT](https://www.ieee.org/profile/public/createwebaccount/showCreateAccount.html?ShowMGAMarkeatbilityOptIn=true&sourceCode=spectrum3c&signinurl=https%3A%2F%2Fspectrum.ieee.org%2Fcore%2Fsaml%2Fmain%2Flogin%3Fnext_url%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fspectrum.ieee.org%2Fcore%2Fintegrations%2Fieee%2Fchanges%0A&url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/&autoSignin=Y&car=IEEE-Spectrum)[SIGN IN](https://spectrum.ieee.org/core/saml/main/login?next_url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/core/integrations/ieee/changes) [Transportation](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/transportation/)[News](https://spectrum.ieee.org/type/news/) # Electric Container Ships Are Stuck on the Horizon ## Batteries still can’t scale up to power the world’s biggest vessels [Vaclav Smil](https://spectrum.ieee.org/u/vaclav-smil) 27 Feb 2019 3 min read ![Illustration: Anders Wenngren](https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/illustration-anders-wenngren.jpg?id=25587853&width=1200&height=900) Illustration: Anders Wenngren ![illustration of container ship](https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/illustration-of-container-ship.jpg?id=25587854&width=600&quality=85)Illustration: Anders Wenngren Just about everything you wear or use around the house once sat in steel boxes on ships whose [diesel](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/diesel) engines propel them from Asia, emitting particulates and carbon dioxide. Surely, you would think, we can do better. After all, we’ve had electric locomotives for more than a century and high-speed electric trains for more than half a century, and recently we have been expanding the global fleet of [electric cars](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/electric-cars). Why not get electric container ships? Actually, the first one should begin to operate this year: the [Yara Birkeland](https://www.km.kongsberg.com/ks/web/nokbg0240.nsf/AllWeb/4B8113B707A50A4FC125811D00407045?OpenDocument), built by Marin Teknikk, in [Norway](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/norway), is not only the world’s first electric-powered, zero-emissions [container ship](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/container-ship) but also the first autonomous commercial vessel. But don’t write off giant diesel-powered container ships and their critical role in a globalized economy just yet. Here is a back-of-the-envelope calculation that explains why. Containers come in different sizes, but most are the standard twenty-foot equivalent units ([TEU](https://marinenotes.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-is-teu-twenty-foot-equivalent-unit.html))—rectangular prisms 6.1 meters (20 feet) long and 2.4 meters wide. The first small container ships of the 1960s carried mere hundreds of TEUs; now [Maersk’s Triple-E class ships](https://www.marineinsight.com/future-shipping/maersks-triple-e-vessels-the-worlds-largest-container-ships-might-change-the-face-of-shipping-industry/) load 18,000 TEUs, and OOCL [Hong Kong](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/hong-kong) holds the record, at 21,413. At the “[super slow steaming,](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322081814_Decision_Making_of_Full_Speed_Slow_Steaming_Extra_Slow_Steaming_and_Super_Slow_Steaming_using_TOPSIS)” fuel-saving speed of 16 knots, these ships can make the journey from Hong Kong to Hamburg in 31 days. Now look at the Yara Birkeland. It will carry just 120 TEU, its service speed will be 6 knots, its longest intended operation will be 30 nautical miles—between Herøya and Larvik, in Norway—and its [batteries](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/batteries) will deliver 7 to 9 megawatt hours. Today’s state-of-the-art diesel container vessels thus carry 150 times as many boxes over distances 400 times as long at speeds three to four times as fast as the pioneering electric ship can handle. What would it take to make an electric ship that can carry 18,000 TEUs? In a 31-day trip, [today’s efficient diesel vessel](https://transportgeography.org/?page_id=5955) burns 4,650 metric tons of fuel (bunker or diesel), each ton packing [42 gigajoules](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonne_of_oil_equivalent). That’s an [energy density](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/energy-density) of about 11,700 watt-hours per kilogram, versus 300 Wh/kg for today’s lithium-ion batteries, a nearly 40-fold difference. The total fuel demand for the trip is about 195 terajoules, or 54 gigawatt-hours. Large diesels (and those in the ships are the largest we have) are about 50 percent efficient, hence their useful propulsive energy demand is about 27 GWh. To match that demand, large [electric motors](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/electric-motors) operating at 90 percent efficiency would need about 30 GWh of electricity. Load the ship with today’s best commercial Li-ion batteries (300 Wh/kg) and still it would have to carry about 100,000 metric tons of them to go nonstop from Asia to Europe in 31 days. Those batteries alone would take up about 40 percent of maximum cargo capacity, an economically ruinous proposition, never mind the difficulties involved in charging and operating the ship. And even if we push batteries to an energy density of 500 Wh/kg sooner than might be expected, an 18,000-TEU vessel would still need nearly 60,000 metric tons of them for a long intercontinental voyage at a relatively slow speed. The conclusion is obvious. To have an electric ship whose batteries and [motors](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/motors) weighed no more than the fuel (about 5,000 metric tons) and the diesel engine (about 2,000 metric tons) in today’s large container vessels, we would need batteries with an energy density more than 10 times as high as today’s best Li-ion units. That’s a tall order indeed: In the past 70 years the energy density of the best commercial batteries [hasn’t even quadrupled](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Fig.+1+History+of+development+of+primary+batteries+in+view+of+energy+density.+Data+is+taken+from+literature.5%22&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS773US774&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=Y0bw-OMzjNv9VM%253A%252C80nwQVJUmI_I0M%252C_&usg=AI4_-kR0N1U6kN8CnPajMnR8F5jG7Nbn3g&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwix_dvd38_gAhXLhOAKHQNEDfMQ9QEwAHoECAAQBA#imgrc=Y0bw-OMzjNv9VM:). This article appears in the March 2019 print issue as “Electric Container Ships Are a Hard Sail.” From Your Site Articles - [Arc Boats Takes a Page from Tesla - IEEE Spectrum ›](https://spectrum.ieee.org/electric-boats) - [Electric Boats: Aquaculture's Quiet Coastal Shift - IEEE Spectrum ›](https://spectrum.ieee.org/electric-boats-aquaculture) - [Electric Boat's 5,016 Batteries Drive Maritime Shift - IEEE Spectrum ›](https://spectrum.ieee.org/electric-boat-battery-ship-ferry) [marine](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/marine)[vehicle efficiency](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/vehicle-efficiency)[electric vehicles](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/electric-vehicles)[container ship](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/container-ship)[lithium-ion battery](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/lithium-ion-battery)[electric boat](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/electric-boat) [Vaclav Smil](https://spectrum.ieee.org/u/vaclav-smil) [Vaclav Smil](https://vaclavsmil.com/) writes Numbers Don’t Lie, IEEE Spectrum's column devoted to the quantitative analysis of the material world. Smil does interdisciplinary research focused primarily on energy, technical innovation, environmental and population change, food and nutrition, and on historical aspects of these developments. He has published [40 books](http://vaclavsmil.com/category/books/) and nearly 500 papers on these topics. He is a [distinguished professor emeritus](http://vaclavsmil.com/) at the University of Manitoba and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Science Academy). In 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the [top 100 global thinkers](https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/11/28/the-fp-top-100-global-thinkers-6/), in 2013 he was appointed as a Member of the [Order of Canada](https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2014/05/order-canada-investiture-ceremony.html), and in 2015 he received an [OPEC Award](https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/3040.htm#:~:text=Vaclav%20Smil%2C%20Distinguished%20Professor%20Emeritus,of%20energy%20economics%20and%20petroleum.&text=The%20OPEC%20Award%20for%20Research%20was%20first%20given%20in%202004.) for research on energy. He has also worked as a consultant for many U.S., EU and international institutions, has been an invited speaker in more than 400 conferences and workshops and has lectured at many universities in North America, Europe, and Asia (particularly in Japan). The Conversation (0) Publish Sort by [![Three men seated on-stage underneath a large presentation screen. One of the men is holding a microphone while speaking to the audience below.](https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/three-men-seated-on-stage-underneath-a-large-presentation-screen-one-of-the-men-is-holding-a-microphone-while-speaking-to-the-a.jpg?id=65416492&width=600&quality=85)](https://spectrum.ieee.org/invences-startup-telecom-networks) [The Institute](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/the-institute/)[IEEE Member News](https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/collections/ieee-member-news/)[Careers](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/careers/)[Profile](https://spectrum.ieee.org/type/profile/)[Telecommunications](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/telecommunications/) ## [Invences Empowers Small Businesses With Smart Telecom Networks](https://spectrum.ieee.org/invences-startup-telecom-networks) 14h 4 min read [![An optical ground station built on a rooftop. Residential skyscrapers, pockets of greenery and a clear blue sky fill the background.](https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/an-optical-ground-station-built-on-a-rooftop-residential-skyscrapers-pockets-of-greenery-and-a-clear-blue-sky-fill-the-backgro.jpg?id=65404031&width=600&height=750&quality=85)](https://spectrum.ieee.org/satellite-communication-laser-radio-transcelestial) [Telecommunications](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/telecommunications/)[Aerospace](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/aerospace/)[News](https://spectrum.ieee.org/type/news/) ## [Could space-to-ground lasers replace fiber-optic cables in the future?](https://spectrum.ieee.org/satellite-communication-laser-radio-transcelestial) 17h 5 min read 2 [![Overhead view of two data center pods, each measuring 55 feet long by 12.5 feet wide.](https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/overhead-view-of-two-data-center-pods-each-measuring-55-feet-long-by-12-5-feet-wide.jpg?id=65417343&width=600&quality=85)](https://spectrum.ieee.org/modular-data-center) [Computing](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/computing/)[AI](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/artificial-intelligence/)[News](https://spectrum.ieee.org/type/news/) ## [The AI Data Centers That Fit on a Truck](https://spectrum.ieee.org/modular-data-center) 18h 3 min read 1 ## Related Stories [Magazine](https://spectrum.ieee.org/magazine/)[Transportation](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/transportation/)[Analysis](https://spectrum.ieee.org/type/analysis/)[August 2021](https://spectrum.ieee.org/magazine/2021/august/) ## [Boats Should Be Sleek—But Only Up to a Point](https://spectrum.ieee.org/boats-should-be-sleek-but-only-up-to-a-point) [Transportation](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/transportation/)[March 2021](https://spectrum.ieee.org/magazine/2021/march/)[Feature](https://spectrum.ieee.org/type/feature/)[Climate Tech](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/climate-tech/)[Climate Change](https://spectrum.ieee.org/collections/climate-change/) ## [Why the Shipping Industry Is Betting Big on Ammonia](https://spectrum.ieee.org/why-the-shipping-industry-is-betting-big-on-ammonia) [Transportation](https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/transportation/)[News](https://spectrum.ieee.org/type/news/) ## [MIT Unveils a Roboat Big Enough to Stand on](https://spectrum.ieee.org/mit-unveils-a-roboat-big-enough-to-stand-on)
Readable Markdown	![illustration of container ship](https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/illustration-of-container-ship.jpg?id=25587854&width=600&quality=85)Illustration: Anders Wenngren Just about everything you wear or use around the house once sat in steel boxes on ships whose [diesel](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/diesel) engines propel them from Asia, emitting particulates and carbon dioxide. Surely, you would think, we can do better. After all, we’ve had electric locomotives for more than a century and high-speed electric trains for more than half a century, and recently we have been expanding the global fleet of [electric cars](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/electric-cars). Why not get electric container ships? Actually, the first one should begin to operate this year: the [Yara Birkeland](https://www.km.kongsberg.com/ks/web/nokbg0240.nsf/AllWeb/4B8113B707A50A4FC125811D00407045?OpenDocument), built by Marin Teknikk, in [Norway](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/norway), is not only the world’s first electric-powered, zero-emissions [container ship](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/container-ship) but also the first autonomous commercial vessel. But don’t write off giant diesel-powered container ships and their critical role in a globalized economy just yet. Here is a back-of-the-envelope calculation that explains why. Containers come in different sizes, but most are the standard twenty-foot equivalent units ([TEU](https://marinenotes.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-is-teu-twenty-foot-equivalent-unit.html))—rectangular prisms 6.1 meters (20 feet) long and 2.4 meters wide. The first small container ships of the 1960s carried mere hundreds of TEUs; now [Maersk’s Triple-E class ships](https://www.marineinsight.com/future-shipping/maersks-triple-e-vessels-the-worlds-largest-container-ships-might-change-the-face-of-shipping-industry/) load 18,000 TEUs, and OOCL [Hong Kong](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/hong-kong) holds the record, at 21,413. At the “[super slow steaming,](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322081814_Decision_Making_of_Full_Speed_Slow_Steaming_Extra_Slow_Steaming_and_Super_Slow_Steaming_using_TOPSIS)” fuel-saving speed of 16 knots, these ships can make the journey from Hong Kong to Hamburg in 31 days. Now look at the Yara Birkeland. It will carry just 120 TEU, its service speed will be 6 knots, its longest intended operation will be 30 nautical miles—between Herøya and Larvik, in Norway—and its [batteries](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/batteries) will deliver 7 to 9 megawatt hours. Today’s state-of-the-art diesel container vessels thus carry 150 times as many boxes over distances 400 times as long at speeds three to four times as fast as the pioneering electric ship can handle. What would it take to make an electric ship that can carry 18,000 TEUs? In a 31-day trip, [today’s efficient diesel vessel](https://transportgeography.org/?page_id=5955) burns 4,650 metric tons of fuel (bunker or diesel), each ton packing [42 gigajoules](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonne_of_oil_equivalent). That’s an [energy density](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/energy-density) of about 11,700 watt-hours per kilogram, versus 300 Wh/kg for today’s lithium-ion batteries, a nearly 40-fold difference. The total fuel demand for the trip is about 195 terajoules, or 54 gigawatt-hours. Large diesels (and those in the ships are the largest we have) are about 50 percent efficient, hence their useful propulsive energy demand is about 27 GWh. To match that demand, large [electric motors](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/electric-motors) operating at 90 percent efficiency would need about 30 GWh of electricity. Load the ship with today’s best commercial Li-ion batteries (300 Wh/kg) and still it would have to carry about 100,000 metric tons of them to go nonstop from Asia to Europe in 31 days. Those batteries alone would take up about 40 percent of maximum cargo capacity, an economically ruinous proposition, never mind the difficulties involved in charging and operating the ship. And even if we push batteries to an energy density of 500 Wh/kg sooner than might be expected, an 18,000-TEU vessel would still need nearly 60,000 metric tons of them for a long intercontinental voyage at a relatively slow speed. The conclusion is obvious. To have an electric ship whose batteries and [motors](https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/motors) weighed no more than the fuel (about 5,000 metric tons) and the diesel engine (about 2,000 metric tons) in today’s large container vessels, we would need batteries with an energy density more than 10 times as high as today’s best Li-ion units. That’s a tall order indeed: In the past 70 years the energy density of the best commercial batteries [hasn’t even quadrupled](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Fig.+1+History+of+development+of+primary+batteries+in+view+of+energy+density.+Data+is+taken+from+literature.5%22&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS773US774&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=Y0bw-OMzjNv9VM%253A%252C80nwQVJUmI_I0M%252C_&usg=AI4_-kR0N1U6kN8CnPajMnR8F5jG7Nbn3g&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwix_dvd38_gAhXLhOAKHQNEDfMQ9QEwAHoECAAQBA#imgrc=Y0bw-OMzjNv9VM:). This article appears in the March 2019 print issue as “Electric Container Ships Are a Hard Sail.”
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