While cruising my (quiet) generator doesn't normally come on automatically until 50% SoC, and turns off at 60% SoC after an hour or so -- I find it better to run in shorter bursts than less often for several hours at a time, both generator and charger run cooler and the batteries charge faster because the current is higher. I'm certainly not under any illusions about it being a "green ideal", if you travel at normal speeds like I do and for several hours a day then on average solar is not going to keep up with demand. With the semi-flexible panels (which delaminated...) I typically found solar provided about a third of the total energy and the generator about two-thirds, hence the curves showing this. The new (bigger, more efficient!) flat panels have more than 50% higher output so I expect closer to a 50:50 split, maybe even a bit higher. Note that this is averaged over all trips, not cherry-picking attractive figures from when the sun is shining... 😉 Depending on whose diesel consumption figures you believe -- the sketchy and more optimistic ones from Beta Marine or the detailed and more pessimistic ones from Hybrid Marine -- this predicts hybrid fuel consumption for my use case of between 40% and 50% that of a diesel, which stacks up with my experience (about half, with the old solar panels). But note that a lot of this comes from solar power and the much lower energy use when going slowly (moored boats) or stationary (in locks), not better efficiency when cruising along which is what is often claimed -- when you allow for all the losses (which are usually ignored) a diesel boat is more efficient than a zero-solar hybrid boat above around 3mph... Of course if you cruise more slowly or for shorter hours or not every day then it's possible that all the energy could come from solar (at least, in summer), and some electric boaters manage to do this -- but not me... ☹️
