The Water-Go-Round, funded by both taxpayer dollars and private enterprise, hopes to show the world what a zero-emissions ferry can be when it hits the waters of the San Francisco Bay this fall.
Courtesy: SW/TCH Maritime
Logistics as an industry must go greener, but who will fund the initial development of the zero-emissions vehicles, vessels, and infrastructure that will eventually scale and get us to a more sustainable global supply chain? Whose problem, exactly, is proof of concept?
Clean Marine Energy‘s founders decided the infrastructure piece of it was theirs to solve (profitably). The Wilton, Connecticut-based company’s offshoot SW/TCH (pronounced “switch”) Maritime is an impact investing platform focused on vessels. Now SW/TCH is partly funding a commuter showboat, a 70-foot, 84-passenger glossy catamaran that will hopefully prompt fleet sales to transit agencies and private operators, and pique the interest of employers who offer staff commuter benefits.
SW/TCH and Golden Gate Zero Emission Marine (GGZEM), which built the powertrain for the vessel now under construction at the Bay Ship & Yacht Company in Alameda for a fall 2019 launch into a three-month pilot, got a $3 million boost to their shared research and development investment from a grant.
The demonstration of potential maritime application of hydrogen fuel cell technology is under construction at the Bay Ship & Yacht Company in Alameda, California.
Courtesy: SW/TCH Maritime
The $3 million is government money, originated in federal Cap-and-Trade appropriations to the state of California, and funneled through the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) California Climate Investments Program to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), which will administrate the use of the grant and monitor progress among partners. However, the project is not operating as a contracted vendor for a government agency.
Golden Gate Zero Emission Marine is not the public Golden Gate Ferry or the National Park Service’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area. In that SW/TCH and GGZEM are creating a single model as a reified idea for public viewing, the vessel is more analogous to a concept car at an auto show than a winning proposal by a green builder selling a government a lower emissions alternative fleet for public transit. It’s just that this concept car, or ferry, will not sit on a stage but instead tour the bay with test groups of curious commuters and with the passengers of project partner and longtime local sightseeing cruise operator Red and White Fleet, among other high-visibility uses.
It will certainly feel like a cleaner cruise than a ride on Golden Gate Ferry’s all-diesel fleet. But SW/TCH cofounder Pace Ralli said in a phone interview that while he’d be glad to deal with transit agencies, he has no plans to court local procurement. “It’s not our intention at SW/TCH Maritime to come in and displace the incumbent operators,” Ralli said. “We want to use our capital to enable the adoption of the zero-emissions technology and then make that technology available along with the supporting infrastructure to the city and potentially to private contracts as well.” In other words, SW/TCH is showcasing there to gainfully replicate its work elsewhere.
Zero emissions technology could be an easier sell following other CARB-funded examples around the state. Hydrogen fuel cell-powered demonstrations working from the same pot of funds that granted the Water Go Around $3 million include a top loader at the Port of Los Angeles and a yard truck at the Port of Long Beach. Battery-electric investments include high capacity forklifts at the Port of Stockton and a switcher locomotive at the Port of Los Angeles.
