In April 2018, ARADEX, in cooperation with the Swiss company Lithium Storage, commissioned a solar catamaran with a purely electric drive. This is a 33-meter-long catamaran which was built in 2001 and used for the Bieler Schifffahrtsgesellschaft AG on Lake Biel in Switzerland. The catamaran was actually already electrified, but for efficient operation, the old lead-acid batteries and the now outdated inverters had to be replaced. The lead-acid batteries were replaced by lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP) with 480 kWh and VECTOPOWER power electronics from ARADEX were used instead of the previous inverters. Two VP600-18W140-HP inverters were installed enabling efficient operation through the use of the most advanced control technology and appropriate voltage adjustment of the components. Furthermore, the catamaran has two asynchronous motors with 81 kW each and a 180 square meter area with solar panels (on the roof), which can provide an output of 30 kW. Using ARADEX HDFC technology (High Dynamic Flux Control), the coordination between the new VECTOPOWER inverters and the motors that were already installed has been optimized, and this despite the fact there was no data was available for the non-ARADEX motors. The HDFC technology detects all the necessary engine data, so that a precise control of asynchronous motors can be made reliably even without known data or engine removal. We are delighted with the successful commissioning of the “renewed” electric drive!
