Sustainable marine power generation and hybridisation

Since 2019 we have successfully developed and launched our award winning, innovative Integrel e-power and e-drive products into the leisure marine market. The existing product ranges, with sustainability at their core, are designed to work with sailboats and powerboats with inboard diesel engines. For every diesel engine produced, 15 petrol outboards are built.

As the drive for electrification and sustainability in the marine sector gathers momentum, manufacturers have developed electric outboard engines. Take up of these has been much slower than anticipated. Performance, range, charging infrastructure and cost are major barriers to electric engines being more widely adopted.

The majority of powerboats have more than one outboard engine and also have a marine generator to power house loads. This approach is not sustainable in the medium term and all system developments must have sustainability at their core

This project is focused on adapting and developing our current patented technology to work with petrol outboard engines. It is a significant technical challenge. Being able to generate power from the outboard engine at 48v to run house loads removes the need for a generator and will deliver up to 25% fuel saving from the current standard state.

Turning that outboard into electric outboard drive at the flick of a switch, moving from generation mode to drive mode significantly reducing fuel usage and giving the boatowner access to places that do not allow boats to go under fossil fuels is totally unique. It will be the only system of its kind on the market and is a huge step towards boating becoming more sustainable and greener. One system to generate and drive on a petrol outboard engine should become the standard state

The project is technically challenging mechanically and from a software and systems integration perspective. We have the skills, knowledge and infrastructure in-house to deliver a successful project from our two facilities in Cornwall and Hythe. Building on our previous experience of product development and commercialisation gives us confidence that we will deliver a first class, first to market sustainable alternative to the norm, developed in the UK and distributed across the globe