No operator around the world wants the headaches, repairs or headlines associated with a catastrophic safety event. This blog covers the good, the overboard and the missing elements of current safety regulations for electric propulsion on commercial vessels.
In 2007, the California Air Resources Board adopted Commercial Harbor Craft regulations that required certain classes of commercial marine vessels to upgrade their diesel engines to cleaner diesel engines.
In order to make the reduction of emissions easier, California created the Carl Moyer Program that provides funding based on the amount of emissions reduced.
California has now proposed an update to the Commercial Harbor Craft regulations that will require the following two categories of vessels to adopt zero-emission technology:
* New excursion vessels will be required to be zero-emission capable hybrid and 30% of their power must be derived from zero-emission sources by January 1, 2025
* New and in-use short-run (less than 3 nautical miles) ferries will be required to be zero-emission by January 1, 2026