Network of electric cargo boats and solar charging docks

People have been living happily in the Congo for thousands of years, with no batteries or engines. They, and we don't 'need' modern technology to survive. A clean healthy forest or savanna is a powerhouse of free energy, free food, low carbon output, low other pollution output, and a good place to live / way of life, if you can protect yourself from wild animals, parasites, insects, infections, and colonial minded outsiders wanting to make a buck, or make a name. A bush track, and feet, and a dugout canoe, and arms, is a very low carbon, low technology way to trade / barter with your neighbors. You don't need a surplus in a healthy forest except to protect yourself from greed, and land thieves from other lands; often in the name of some religious sect, or do gooders doing good for themselves. Precision diesel injectors, and electrical switching gear, and even steam engines cost money, and can't be made from environmentally friendly forest or savanna supplies.
Yes I know I'm high and mighty typing on my high tech electronical computer powered by fossil fuels destroying the planet, but the bush telegraph here has had the bush cleared for fired brick buildings, and asphalt roads supporting polluting vehicles traveling between concrete and glass giant ant hills full of corruption and disease. We don't need to drag every one else down with us. 'Moderns' are the 3rd world in reality; destroying our own health and livelihoods; we're just brainwashed into supporting profitable consumerism, by thinking we're better off than 'poor natives', who don't crap in their own nest.
Please forgive me, I still like boats though.

 

Wow, that is some river system!
I spent a few months before covid showing Marshallese people how to build an 8m/27' zero emissions boat for transporting a ton of copra across 30 miles of coral atoll lagoon (see video). Spent covid building most of a 24m/80' version for servicing remote maritime villages where the big ships can't (too deep), don't (not enough people/payload) or won't (too risky) go. Bought it to Fiji 2 and a bit years ago for completion and testing. Yet to test it as other things got in the way, mainly bureaucracy and setting up village suitable boat building courses building sustainable, lightweight, low cost, easily built, repaired and powered boats for fishing and transport. We also got into low cost electric motors and batteries.

The upshot of this short period of immersion into non first world maritime transport is:
1) Aid without education should be an offence. Supplying motors and boats without teaching the recipients how to maintain them is a waste of time and money, which puts local boatbuilders out of work and destroys the goodwill the recipients had towards the donors. It results in rotting boats, discarded motors and dangerous practices.
2) There is a colossal amount of aid available to Pacific Islanders, but not a lot of it is visible on the ground. If the cost of conferences and papers endlessly discussing the problems and a decent portion of the travel costs and wages of the administrators was spent on the problems instead of on talking about them, the problems would be greatly diminished.
3) You must look at the problem holistically.
Solar boats without solar villages won't work. This actually makes the boats an easier sell, but means more investment and training is required,
Increasing crop output probably means cool rooms at both ends of the route,
Teaching boat building to people without english, arithmetic or a basic level of measuring knowledge needs some prior courses,
etc, etc, depending on local circumstances.
4) Based on very little experience so far, electric power is the way to go. We put 5 x 300W panels ($US400) on a 6m/20' barge style boat, hooked 2 of them (1 hp total) up to a 40 hp outboard in which the students had replaced the petrol motor with a 10 kw electric motor and did 4 knots (gps) with 3 people on board on a cloudy day (see video). We also ran an 8m catamaran (250 kgs/550 lbs) with 4 people on board at 6 knots for 8 hours using a 7 kwh battery. We have since sourced much cheaper and better electric motors and are repurposing EV batteries, both of which will lower the costs of this exercise considerably.

The solar boat was built by 9 students in 6 x 24 hour weeks. Apart from a battery glue gun to speed things up, no power tools were used, just utility knives, scissors, measuring tape and a square. The boat is not pretty, but it's quick and easy to build, easily repaired, rot proof, high payload and low cost ($US640 incl shipping, tax and duty for the materials). It weighs about 90 kgs/200 lbs and is built from 40%bio epoxy, fibreglass and recycled PET (soda bottles) foam. We are building a new shed and training a local co-operative workforce to start producing these early next year.

We also ran a workshop for village fisherwomen. 9 of them built a 4m outrigger canoe in 4 days, one of them then came back and built herself a 4m catamaran. She then ran a workshop where another one was built. We put her through some Australian Government training and she is now teaching our Certificate 3 course, the first in the Pacific.

If any of this is of interest, please check out the references in C.Dog's (thanks) post above and either post here or email me at harryproa @gmail.com.

Rob

 

True enough for the engine itself.Not so great when it comes to the need to keep a pressure vessel in good condition for a long time and truly awful when it comes to thermal efficiency.A basic diesel would be around four times as good in that respect.I have no idea whether the Congo is littered with Japanese pickups that have been shaken to pieces by the road network,but it may be the case and they have a well earned reputation for reliable engines.For the time being, such an engine and the attendant tankage may be a more efficient way to go.

I find the notion of using the sun,the flow of the river or the wind to generate electricity appealing ecologically but the reasons already given indicate that it may not quite be the time.

 

It can be done, but a barge has a massive top space and containing the solar to the barge is far better. The operator of the vessel is responsible for power and performance and not some remote village fuel transfer station. The operator could have backup diesel generation as well.

The fantasy of electrical stations and them not getting trashed or the power use or stolen is just that.

My solar array is about 40 sqft and produces 2kw consistently or maybe 3k. A barge 8x25 could produce maybe 10x that or 30kw. @Rumars may know the maths better, but the self contained hybrid diesel beast is the only way I can see it.

 

Guys, you need to remember the Congo is a big river. Every time you go downhill you must return uphill. The main current can have average speeds of 8kn, and there are different speed zones and even countercurrents along the main flow. You either have enough power to go wherever you like with impunity, or you need to do very careful navigation exploiting the river topography.
If you stay in human power scale boats, solar-electric electric is feasible, but you won't be able to move significantly more cargo quicker.
Bigger, more powerful boats, can use other local fuel sources, like coconut oil or woodgas, but beeing local doesn't mean they're free. Someone still has to collect and processes the fuel before you can use it, and they want to be paid.

Ultimately this is about money not technology. We can make electric ferries and tugs, but operating them on a profit base is a different kettle of fish.