Tradesmen are working at Sitka’s community boatyard to install a hybrid electric propulsion system on the fishing vessel Mirage, and breathe life into research toward clean energy solutions and cost savings for Alaska’s small-boat fisheries.

The conversion represents the first phase of an Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) initiative to fit three boats with battery-electric motors and clear a path for more fishing boats to follow suit.

On the Mirage, a 50-foot troller/longliner, “things are closing up, it’s happening,” vessel owner Jeff Turner said on Jan. 9.

He said the boat could be in the water for sea trials by Jan. 19. Representatives from the Italian company Transfluid, which manufactured the electric motors now attached to his diesel engine, are set to visit Sitka that week.

ALFA leaders have spent about 10 years building momentum for the conversion project.

In 2016, Linda Behnken, a commercial fisherman and the executive director of ALFA, got with fisherman Dan Falvey and the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation to initiate about five years of study into the fuel efficiency of the fishing fleet.

The team hired Chandler Kemp, an energy scientist fresh out of graduate school, as lead engineer for that project.

Kemp and the team considered the operational and structural changes that fishermen could implement to increase their efficiency. Behnken said that, at the time, there was interest in harnessing next-generation fuels such as hydrogen.

In 2021, ALFA was one of 11 “communities” in the U.S. selected for funding by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for work on energy transitions.

Laboratory partners “helped us recognize that the next best step is hybrid boats, that there isn’t really a distribution system in place for next-generation fuel,” Behnken said. “So hybrid — especially in these towns that have renewable energy sources, like we do here with hydropower in Sitka — hybrid makes a lot of sense.”

That led ALFA to apply for, and win more funding from, the Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technology Office for three hybrid or electric conversions on working boats in Alaska.

For ALFA s first hybrid boat conversion, Kemp laid plans to connect a pair of electric motors, powered by two large battery banks, with the diesel engine in Sitka resident Eric Jordan’s I Gotta.

Jordan later backed out of the project. “It came down to a family decision that I wasn’t the right candidate based on my age, my limited mechanical abilities and the space requirements in my boat,” Jordan said.

“So we had to pivot,” said Ben Matthys, a marine electrician with Kemp’s company, Kempy Energetics, who joined the ALFA project in 2022.

In the fall of 2023, ALFA staff identified the Mirage as a good candidate for the same hybrid system that was planned for Jordan’s boat.

Turner jumped at the idea of converting his boat. He said he grew weary of burning diesel over his 40 years working in fisheries.

While running between fishing grounds off Sitka, Kodiak and Seward, “I thought, ‘This is stupid expensive,’” Turner said. “The noise pollution is huge, too.”

With the hybrid system, Turner will run to and from the fishing grounds using his diesel engine, and then switch to electric mode to fish at low speeds.

While in port, Turner will recharge the battery-electric motors with Sitka’s hydropower energy.

While at sea, a diesel generator will power the boat’s blast freezer and could charge the batteries at the same time.

Behnken said that hybrid boats like the Mirage could see fuel savings as high as 80% for one- or two-day trips.

“For five-day trips or longer, it’s more to the order of 12 to 20%, which is still meaningful,” Behnken said.

Turner said he’s excited to help answer these questions: “What are the fuel savings? What kind of charge do we get on the batteries? Can we get a whole day in? What’s it cost to do the conversion itself?”

“We’re doing a little bit for the world, trying to change from using all that dang fuel,” Turner said. “So we’re tearing the boat apart, and now the exciting part is seeing how it comes back together.”

At the end of October the boat was lifted ashore at the city’s new marine haulout and boatyard.

Turner, Matthys, marine electrician Dan Cooper, hydraulic machinist Paul Rioux, marine fabricator Jeremy Serka, and workers for Serka’s company, Sitka Custom Marine, have been working on the conversion since it got to drydock.

“These guys are doing something groundbreaking,” Behnken said. “Every day there’s new challenges and problems to solve, and they just work their way through it.”

Turner said the conversion would not be possible without Matthys, who is overseeing most of the physical work in Sitka.

While ripping his boat open for the project, Turner decided it would be a good time to replace his Cummins diesel engine. To fit the large battery banks in the Mirage, Turner remodeled his entire cabin.

“It’s like playing Tetris placing more components in a boat,” Matthys said. “Most boats are already pretty cozy. We shifted the engine forward about 19 inches to fit the electric motors; in boat world, that’s a mile.”

Matthys and the ALFA team members also are preparing to install an all-electric Evoy inboard motor, made in Sweden, on the Energizer, a Juneau gillnet boat that will arrive in Sitka soon.

The third phase of the project will take place in Kodiak, where a mariculture skiff will be fitted with battery banks and an electric outboard.

Behnken said the boat conversions are geared at reducing the carbon footprint of the fishing fleet, as well as improving the economic outlook for Alaska s small-boat fishermen.

“As the costs of catching fish have gone up in processing fish, we haven’t seen any comparable increase, if any increase, in what we’re paid for those fish,” Behnken. “We have to find more ways to be efficient and lower operating costs while we improve our marketing strengths and start doing more value-added seafood.”

Turner said fishermen could fetch higher prices by direct-marketing their “green” catch from one of the few hybrid or all-electric boats fishing off Alaska.

Behnken said ALFA has a list of fishing boats that are interested in conversion, but not all boats are candidates, given limitations like vessel size. “We’re looking at finding funding to help support the transition and identifying the (hybrid or electric) systems that will fit in the boats.”