Electric cargo ship tests water along Yangtze River

NANJING - A homegrown electric cargo ship with a load capacity of 1,000 tons successfully tested the water at the Yangtze River section in Changzhou, East China's Jiangsu province on Friday.

The vessel, powered by a lithium battery and supercapacitor, has a battery capacity of 1,458 kWh, equivalent to that of 40 electric cars in total, according to the Jiangsu branch of the State Grid, who participated in the ship's design.

The ship named "Zhongtiandianyun 001" can cruise 50 km, after it is charged for 2.5 hours, said Li Yaohong, marketing director of the company.

Jiangsu Province has built a total of 4,918 charging systems in eight cities along the Yangtze River. The facilities will provide about 57 million kWh of power every year, which will help save more than 20,000 tons of diesel, reducing emissions of oxynitride by over 600 tonnes and sulfur dioxide by over 200 tons.

The Jiangsu section of the Yangtze River is one of the busiest waterways in the world, putting local ecology under great pressure. Over 90 percent of the ships are driven by diesel, a major pollutant source in the area.

The charging facilities will help boost the development of electrical vessels and to a large extent cut emissions in the area, said Li.