Super Yacht “Cecilia” Full Electric Propulsion with Battery Storage

In many ways, the Wider 165 “Cecilia” is a sister ship to the award-winning Wider 150 Bartali launched in 2016. Her muscular exterior styling by Fulvio De Simoni is immediately recognisable and she is based on the same naval platform, although the extra hull length has optimised her gross tonnage to just below the 500GT threshold.

The yacht also features the same diesel-electric propulsion package, comprising four variable speed generators connected to alternators that produce electricity to power the pods with contra-rotating propellers (CRPs). Energy can also be stored in Lithium battery banks, allowing the yacht to cruise in silent zero-emission mode (ZEM) or run the hotel loads at anchor. At the time of our visit, the power management system was hooked up to load banks on the dock for testing.

The EST-Floattech Green Orca Lithium Polymer batteries with 546 kWh are the heart of the system, these store the energy produced by the generators and release it according to the requirements of the owner. If the owner wishes to run at zero emission mode using just the batteries, or if he would like a night at anchor without running the generators, he can do so. If he needs higher performance then he can run the yacht from the variable speed generator engines, but any excess power is diverted to recharge the battery banks so there is no wastage whatsoever.

The benefits of this system are truly noteworthy. Conventional yachts run generators at a fixed speed, burning fuel at a fixed rate whether that be too little or too much for the load at the time. By connecting the engines to alternators WIDER offer variable speed generators that will only be run at the speed that is necessary at the time. The result of this is greater time between overhaul of the engines, greater fuel economy, and greater comfort since noise and vibration are kept to an absolute minimum.