I thought I'd start a new topic specifically on this since the other one has got very long and gone a bit off-track. It's a bit long so feel free to not read it if you can't be bothered.
Instead of complaining about how difficult it's all going to be and how it will drive people off the canals -- exactly the same objections as to BEV on the road -- I wanted to think about how it could be made to work on the (very likely) assumption that this change is inevitable. Unfortunately technology is involved, which I'm sure will offend some people ?
Let's start from the assumption that the hire fleets *have* to go electric, they renew boats fairly often anyway (and have the money to do so from hire fees), they have facilities, and are not going be allowed an exception to the rule because they don't really have an excuse. So they switch to electric boats with a decent size battery bank onboard -- say 40kWh of 2V traction cells for the moment (see absorption comment below), lithium in the future if the economics (and charging) make more sense -- which together with solar panels on the roof (typically 2.5kW of mono bifacials) is enough to keep boats going for 2 or 3 days cruising (depending on length of day and enthusiasm of crew) before they have to stop and recharge -- a bit like water tanks.
Boatyards will have to install recharging facilities to deal with their own boats at changeover, big enough to turn round their entire fleet in time on changeover days -- sound like a lot but they only need about 10kW per boat which isn't so bad, the connection to the grid (probably 3-phase) would only be the size of maybe 3 houses (each of which are normally on separate phases) and the grid seems perfectly capable of supplying far more houses than this. On all the other days this supply is available to charge passing boats, probably at more than 10kW per boat because there will be fewer of them, so a charge would take an hour or so -- and the boatyard would charge for doing this, which helps them pay for the infrastructure.
Avoiding the need for long absorption charges for both their own boats and visiting ones would probably push the yards towards lithium batteries, which anyway is the way that cars are going so prices will continue to drop, and boats get a "free ride" on the propulsion technology (high-voltage battery packs and controllers, motors) developed for cars and made in big volumes. The battery state (and boat position) can be remotely monitored in the same way the Victron systems are, this can easily tie into a computer at the boatyard which can do things like warning hirers if their charge is running low, and giving them advice on where the next boatyard/charging station is and how long it will take them to get there -- this is the kind of thing that Teslas already do. The boatyards can then talk to each other via the internet to do things like booking charging slots, warning yards when a boat will turn up, and charging this back to the hiring boatyard who can then bill the customer at the end of their holiday, just like is done now for diesel (or lump it in with the holiday cost).
And all this is also available to non-hire boaters too, presumably they will pay more for the electricity to cover the boatyard's costs but this will still end up cheaper than diesel. Boats who only move a bit like peterboat can get enough power from solar and don't need to recharge, at least during the summer -- as in the other thread, things are going to be a bit tight for them in winter.
What happens if hirers ignore the warnings and run out of juice, I hear you say? Simple, the boatyard has a 10kW-20kW generator in the back of their maintenance van, they drive out to the boat and recharge it like they would for a breakdown -- and charge the hirer a decent fee (50 quid? 100 quid?) to cover the cost and discourage hirers from ignoring the warnings, just like if they block the pumpout.
From the boatyards point of view (once they've bought the boats) this is a winner for their business -- the cost of running and especially maintaining the boats is far lower because they're so much simpler, breakdowns would be few and far between, and they make extra money by selling electricity to passing boats (like they do by selling diesel to them today).
On most of the the canal network boatyards are closely enough spaced to make this all work, but there are some sections with few boatyards where additional charging stations would be needed -- the Rochdale and HNC spring to mind, otherwise Shire Cruisers for one are screwed. The obvious thing then is to install these at water points, these are often on towns/villages which have mains nearby. They'd have to be paid for, installation costs could come from CART or a shared levy on the boatyards, but they could make money back by charging more for the electricity at these charging points -- again, just like for BEV.
As far as I can see this will work just fine for hire boats, new builds, and anyone else who converts their diesel boat to electric -- which comes at a price, but there's no alternative if we assume this change *is* going to happen. Boating becomes much more pleasant and tranquil for everyone because the noise and fumes are gone, like horse-drawn days but without the sh*t. Some of the biggest objections will undoubtedly come from the traditionalists who (justifiably!) like engines that go chug-chug (or bonk-pause-pause-bonk-bonk...), presumably there would be a "vintage/traditional boat" exception to the rules for these in the same way that there is for classic cars -- but I also guess that building new replicas against the rules would be banned for the same reason. Doesn't affect the current owners since these engines go on pretty much forever, but stops them breeding --the boats, that is.
So the traditionalists can be kept happy, but the people who live on old scruffy boats because they're cheap won't be since they'll be unable to afford thousands of pounds to convert their boats to electric -- or will claim they can't afford it and protest mightily to the press (and the organisation we shall not name) about how they're being driven off the canals and their home is being taken away. It's difficult to see how this could be solved, because they basically want to carry on living on a boat which used to be legal but isn't any more -- should they just be accepted as a casualty of change, or should some subsidy be found to help them convert? I can hear the howls of protest now, "I'm not watching part of my license fees used to subsidise scruffy layaboats who break the rules"...
I'd love to get comments about this idea -- and if you're going to find problems and pick holes in it, maybe you could try and find solutions to the problems instead of just naysaying? Because even if every doom-monger on the canals doesn't like this change it's going to happen, the only question is when, and it would be better to find ways of making it work for the boating community than it being screwed by having change imposed by a government that doesn't understand the issues.
Over to you...