The optimal hybrid/electric ferry for the liguria Natural Parks

The Gulf of La Spezia is one of the widest and deepest of the whole Tyrrhenian coast, enclosed between two headlands and bordered by an amphitheatre of hills and mountains. Just outside the bay to the west, the pristine Cinque Terre National Park is one of the most important and beautiful natural Mediterranean areas. All this together with the characteristics of a crystalline sea, a great network of paths, has made the Cinque Terre an increasingly popular destination for Italian and foreign tourists. The Eco-Ferry project faces the needs of minimizing the environmental impact of passenger ferries for tourist transportation with-in the Cinque Terre National Park, the islands of the Portovenere Park and town and the connection with La Spezia. It has the specific objective of defining the "optimal" hybrid and fully electric passenger ferry boat equipped with a large photovoltaic system and state of the art but commercial HEV technologies, as a function of the size of the electric propulsion engine, of the battery energy storage and of the genset, ac-cording to the different routes and possible stages in the transport service. This is a kind of analysis have been already addressed in the automobile sector, but not in the field of marine transportation.