Patent ID: 8244419

Claim:
A marine power system comprising: i) at least one motor for driving a propulsion unit having a propulsion unit average power and a propulsion unit peak power; ii) at least one energy storage unit for storing electric energy and supplying said electric energy to the at least one motor, having an energy storage capacity and an energy storage unit output power; iii) at least one prime power system having a prime power system rated power, being electrically connected to the at least one energy storage unit and the at least one motor for selectively providing electrical energy to the at least one energy storage unit and to the at least one motor; iv) a bus electrically connecting the at least one energy storage unit, the at least one prime power system and the at least one motor; and v) a control system for controlling the operation of the at least one prime power system and the propulsion unit, and for monitoring the at least one energy storage unit, wherein the at least one motor selectively receives operational energy from the at least one energy storage unit and the at least one prime power system, the at least one motor supplies regenerative braking energy to the bus when the propulsion unit collects energy from water passing by the propulsion unit, and wherein the ratio of the at least one prime power system rated power to the propulsion unit peak power is between 0.1 and 0.8.