Sustainable boating on canals and rivers

300 charging points

This is an essential step towards electric propulsion. In the meantime, it would reduce emissions from stoves for heating and engines run for charging batteries.

More dredging

A national dredging programme on the inland waterways would make propulsion of all boats significantly more efficient. It will also improve water quality and management at times of both high and low flow.

Biofuels

Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) is already approved by most, if not all, current diesel engine manufacturers and we are trialling it in engines from manufacturers who are no longer trading. We are conducting trials of HVO in a variety of domestic devices used for heating, cooking and water heating. We are also campaigning for tax cuts to make this almost carbon neutral alternative more affordable.

Further technologies

Future developments will inevitably piggy-back on automotive ones. Work on hydrogen production and distribution is already underway. Before hydrogen becomes available, solid oxide cells powered by propane could cut emissions by about 80% and the use of supercapacitors instead of batteries could eliminate charging losses.

[The photo shows a narrow boat at South Brewood on the Shropshire Union Canal  –  by Pete Anderson]

We are a group of inland waterways boaters, with a wide variety of craft types, who are interested in making leisure boating as sustainable as possible in a low or zero carbon world.

We are not only interested in propulsion but also working to make domestic energy usage on boats more sustainable.

If you are interested, please contact Bowman Bradley at [email protected]