Photon Marine, Seattle, has received the first $1 million MegaBoost award from the NSF Energy Storage Engine in Upstate New York to develop and demonstrate an electric workboat, a shoreside fast charger and a floating battery platform on New York waterways.
The project builds on a pilot with the New York Power Authority and New York State Canal Corporation. During that pilot, canal crews used a leased workboat fitted with Photon Marine electric outboards for buoy retrieval, dredge pipe towing, crew transport and debris removal.
The new vessel will be a 24' workboat equipped with Photon Marine’s Gen-7 P300 electric propulsion system, rated at up to 300 peak hp. The project also includes a 40-kW marine DC fast charger intended for commercial, government and recreational vessels.
A third component, called the ChargeBarge, will be a 32' floating platform carrying battery storage and charging equipment. Designed to provide charging where shoreside infrastructure is unavailable, it could also support temporary operations and provide power during grid disruptions. Derecktor Shipyards will fabricate the platform in New York.
“Commercial marine electrification will only scale when operators can see that the technology works in the conditions they face every day,” said Marcelino J. Alvarez, Photon Marine’s co-founder and CEO. He said the project would demonstrate how the propulsion system, charger and mobile storage platform operate together.
Photon Marine plans to collect data on vessel performance, battery condition, charging use and workboat duty cycles. The company also plans to develop guidance for fleet operators considering electric vessels.
MegaBoost supports customer-driven demonstrations of energy storage systems at a larger scale than the Engine’s SuperBoost program, according to the organization. The integrated workboat and charging demonstration is expected in late 2027 or early 2028.
