Test bench for battery energy storage selection for use on solar powered motor yachts

An increasing number of transport vehicles, including vessels, are powered by electric engines supplied by batteries. Warsaw University of Technology, together with the Maritime University of Szczecin and industrial partners, is involved in the “Innovative yacht with hybrid drive, fueled by renewable energy sources” project, focused on the construction of a yacht driven from such a source. The biggest challenge in this field of technology is represented by the batteries. Proper assortment and exploitation can significantly extend their life cycle. For this reason, the interest in forecasting battery life cycle in specific applications has increased. In this article the authors review the types of batteries used in transport and present the design and realization of a laboratory workstation developed to test battery parameters in the context of the project. The process of gathering parameters and the testing conditions are also presented. An original IT system manages the progress of the experiments. Logged cell operating parameters will be presented along with the real, measured data.