BRIN Develops Electric Boat For Fishermen

ILLUSTRATION ANTARA

JAKARTA - The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) has developed electric boats to replace outboard motorized boats commonly used by fishermen to help fishermen save operational costs.

Cuk Supriyadi Ali Nandar, a researcher from the BRIN Energy Conversion and Conservation Research Center, suggested that electric boats could be a solution to the problem of fishermen's operational costs, considering that around 60 percent of fishing costs are used to buy fuel.

Cuk said that battery-based electric motorized boats are more efficient and environmentally friendly than conventional oil-fueled boats used by fishermen.

BRIN has tested the use of electric boats for inter-island transportation in Batam City, Riau Islands Province, as well as electric boats for tourist transportation in Karst Village, Maros Regency, South Sulawesi, and the Tani Betet tourist destination in East Java.

"Currently, we use more applications to introduce the public to tours so that as a program to socialize that this boat can also use electricity," said Cuk.

Cuk pointed out the great potential for the development of electric-powered transportation in Indonesia, where 70 percent of the area is in the ocean, 67 percent of the regencies and cities are located in coastal areas, 40 percent of the transportation of goods is carried out by sea, and around 1.4 million heads of households are fishermen.

He also said that in Indonesia there are around 395,000 marine fishing vessels and 231,000 of them are boats with outboard motor engines.