China polishing that huge turd real hard.
“Combining solar and LNG”
Hey, I slapped a solar panel on my gas stove to power the clock. Its green now.
That’s really not what that is. Modern ships have an electric motor and a fossil fuel based electricity generator because they can run the generator in the most efficient rpm that way - and they also need electricity on board.
Same principle also applies to modern diesel trains.
Is it like how a non plug-in hybrid uses the battery to improve efficiency?
No, as those also have ICE motors. This is more like having an EV but instead of charging the battery directly you fill it with diesel. Then there is a diesel generator that runs constantly at the most fuel efficient RPM it can. Any engine has an ideal RPM that it can run at with significant savings - thing trying to go highway speeds in first gear for the opposite idea. Instead of the generator having to absorb any power spikes, the electric motors do that and use the stored energy.
There is also a startup company in BC that I saw has been implementing this idea into long haul trucks for substantial improvements.
. This is more like having an EV but instead of charging the battery directly you fill it with diesel. Then there is a diesel generator that runs constantly at the most fuel efficient RPM it can.
You just described a plugin hybrid, which is an EV with an onboard generator.
It’s very similar yes, as the plug in hybrid does much of what I described. The difference is that a hybrid with have a hybrid drivetrain which can be driven directly from the ICE motor if needed in addition to the battery-powered (via plug in it engine charging) electric motors.
Whereas what I described does not have that ICE fallback in the drivetrain. Does that make more sense? One only exclusively uses electric motors for the ‘work’ tasks, where the hybrid can use the ICE motor directly as needed.