Ideally, the engine won’t need to be run just for power generation.

• Generating electricity, while it is used for propulsion is no big deal, because the extra load of highly efficient generator heads doesn’t require much fuel anyways.
• Given the combined input of wind and solar, the need for generation off the engine will be rare.
• Power generation can be combined with water-making and heating off the engine if needed.

That way very little energy is wasted.

Kubota was our first choice for engines due to their ubiquitous use and abuse in construction and agriculture all over the world. Mecc-Alte is the largest independent producer of generator heads; we chose one of its highly-efficient Zanardi PM units. Allowing for variable speed input (1500 to 2500 rpm) they combine the flexibility of alternators with the efficiency of permanent magnet generator heads.
It was our luck to partner with Betamarine 38 on this project – being the largest importer of Kubota in the UK and having decades of experience with Mecc-Alte. Betamarine designed, engineered, built and tested these units, dealing most patiently and competently with months of suggestions and requests.

The inverters can even synchronize the phases so that the yield of both generators can be combined (for a theoretical maximum output of 16 kW). This is done by connecting

• the output of the two inverters in parallel
• the synchronization ports of the inverters by means of an external synchronization cable

The charger-inverter units also allow combining generator output with inverted power from the batteries, so that the power needed is always needed.