NAVY - US Navy Leader in Hybrid Transportation

(first-of-its-kind mating of gas turbine engines and electric motors)
"Navy goes green with new hybrid ship" by Steve Liewer, San Diego Union-Tribune

USS Makin Island expected to save millions in fuel costs

Like virtually all Navy vessels, the new amphibious assault ship Makin Island is painted haze gray.

But Capt. Bob Kopas, commander of the ship, sees nothing but green — the color of environmental friendliness.

The Makin Island pulled into North Island Naval Air Station yesterday afternoon following a two-month journey from Northrop Grumman's Ingalls Shipbuilding yard in Pascagoula, Miss., and around the southern tip of South America.

About 1,200 family members welcomed the ship and its 1,023-member crew to its home port. The Makin Island will be commissioned here Oct. 24.

Kopas said the ship saved 900,000 gallons of fuel, worth more than $2 million, on its maiden cruise because of a first-of-its-kind mating of gas turbine engines and electric motors. The motors are used at low speeds — roughly 75 percent of the time — and the engine kicks in at high speeds.

“We're like a big hybrid car,” Kopas, who lives in San Diego, said as the ship neared the coastline. “I love it.”

The Navy predicts it will save $250 million in fuel costs over the life of the ship. Some analysts foresee the Makin Island heralding a shift to a fuel-efficient, all-electric fleet.

“It's a watershed for the Navy,” said Scott Truver, an independent naval analyst based in Washington, D.C. “It's a generational change.”

Makin Island is the first Navy vessel to combine gas turbines with auxiliary motors that run off the ship's electrical grid.

The technology has been used in the civilian world for years, said Joe Carnevale, senior defense adviser for the Shipbuilders Council of America. Many cruise ships have run entirely on electrical power for the past 20 years.

For the Navy, shifting to a “green” propulsion system was a complicated process because classes of ships are built over two or three decades. Altering something as basic as the power plant is expensive.

“Going in and changing out the propulsion system is a pretty big deal,” Carnevale said. “The Navy (fell) behind the commercial world.”

Truver believes the Makin Island marks the beginning of a transformation to electric-powered ships. It may mirror the gradual switch to electric automobiles in the civilian world — if vehicles such as General Motors' Chevrolet Volt are successful.

“This is the thin edge of the wedge for propulsion systems,” Truver said. “It's not a technical challenge. It's a political challenge.”

The Makin Island is the last of eight Wasp-class flattop amphibious assault ships delivered since 1989, all built for the job of carrying Marines to distant war zones. It's by far the most technologically advanced amphibious assault ship and, at $2.5 billion, the most expensive.

Construction started in 2004, but delivery was delayed by about two years after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the Gulf Coast in 2005. Last year, much of the ship had to be rewired because of mistakes by inexperienced shipyard workers hired after the storm.

“It's like birthing a baby,” said retired Vice Adm. John Nyquist of Coronado, a member of the Makin Island's commissioning committee.

Early on, engineers decided to scrap the steam-powered boilers that employ World War II-era technology in favor of the modern, but initially costlier, gas turbine engines installed for years on the Navy's smaller cruisers and destroyers.

“Steam boilers are difficult to maintain,” said Nyquist, who served as assistant chief of naval operations for surface warfare during the 1980s. “They're a whole lot of work. You have to clean the watersides and firesides the old-fashioned way.”

Dumping the boilers means his engine room is cooler, quieter and requires fewer sailors, said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Constantino Constantino, an engineer aboard the Makin Island.

“I used to have 25 people. With this (ship), I only have about 10,” said Constantino, 47, of San Diego. “It's a big difference.”

All of the ship's systems are run by a computer network that checks every component and alerts sailors if something is wrong.

Instead of running around checking engine-room gauges, Petty Officer 1st Class Eli Bardowell watches a computer screen in his air-conditioned space.

“It saves us a lot of trouble-shooting,” said Bardowell, 32, of Port Maria, Jamaica. “It's a lot of fun because it's something different.”

In another nod to environmentally friendly technology, the Makin Island features four reverse-osmosis water-purification systems. Each holds 50,000 gallons, dwarfing the capacity of other ships. There's plenty of water, and that means no more of the Navy's infamous short showers.

“Water is not a problem,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Nicholas Ayres, 30, of Holden, Mo., who maintains the system. “We have on-demand hot water. You don't have to wait to get a hot shower.”

The Makin Island's skipper is looking forward to showing off his new ship in San Diego.

“Everybody's going to want to come and see this,” Kopas said. “We're gonna be the new boy on the block.”