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A ZERO-EMISSIONS FUTURE

n 2018, with the introduction of the hybrid-electric vessel The solar array will help the company for economic PREVIOUS PAGES: A Red and
Enhydra, the Red and White Fleet moved one step closer to reasons as well. “We’re long-term energy consumers,” explains White Fleet boat circles around
Ifulfilling their goal of returning to a state of zero emissions. Burgard. As such, it’s always important for the company to Alcatraz Island.
This will help to ensure the company continues its success, think ahead. While the solar array is a big capital investment, BELOW: A poster for the
by protecting the waters the fleet sails upon, and the lungs of it will save the company from the effects of rising fuel prices Water-Go-Round keel-laying
those who work on the boats and partake in the company’s over time. “When you amortize it out over twenty years, and ceremony on November 8, 2018.
cruises and tours. you know what your kilowatt-per-hour cost is, that creates The hydrogen-fuel-celled Water-Go-
Enhydra is the first vessel of its kind in the United States, and a fixed cost into the future. The economic model makes Round represents the next big step
toward zero-emissions vessels in the
it represents a huge step forward in environmentally sustainable sense,” says Burgard. Even more importantly, it will also help maritime industry.
maritime transport. It runs on diesel-electric hybrid propulsion, to improve the resiliency of San Francisco’s infrastructure.
with the capacity to plug in at the dock to charge or to run on In a potential crisis, the solar array will allow the Red and OPPOSITE: A Red and White Fleet
its onboard diesel generator. The vessel represents a 60 percent White Fleet to remain operational indefinitely, even without boat sails out toward the Golden
reduction in greenhouse gasses over the current Fleet average. fuel shipments or use of the city’s electric grid. This would Gate Bridge on a beautiful sunny
Although this is a huge step forward for the Fleet, Chairman provide San Francisco with a reliable form of emergency day on the Bay.
Tom Escher is not content to stop there. Over the next five transportation, and it will also generate enough power to
years, the company has plans to install a 1,200,000-square-foot feed back into the grid for use by other systems.
solar array on its piers, allowing hybrid vessels like Enhydra This type of technological progress would not be possible
to charge from clean, renewable, locally generated solar without productive relationships with other innovative
power. “It’s designed to have the capacity to go to all-electric,” companies, such as Golden Gate Zero Emissions Marine
explains President Joe Burgard. Once this solar array is in (GGZEM), which was founded in part by Escher and
place, the Enhydra’s onboard generator will be used solely as a Burgard. The company is hard at work on an innovative
backup system in case of emergency, meaning that passenger vessel, the Water-Go-Round, a hydrogen-fuel-cell ferry that,
tours will operate in all-electric mode, creating, in Burgard’s when launched, is likely to be the first of its kind in the
words, “a perfectly green loop.” As Escher points out, “[It’s United States.
going to be] very similar to 1892, when Tom Crowley started Hydrogen fuel cell technology is an improvement over
the business with no pollution.” hybrid-electric, because it will eliminate the need for onboard

128 • Red and White Fleet