P.E.I. company excited by new report promoting electric lobster boats

A P.E.I. company that just launched a hybrid lobster boat is applauding a new report promoting incentives and targets for electrifying marine vessels. 

AKA Energy Systems is hoping to launch its own all-electric lobster boat within the next year, following up on its work with hybrid vessels. 

"We got our first hybrid boat out in the summer, so that's something that we've been working on for a couple of years," said Jason Aspin, AKA's CEO.

"Electrification, all-electric or hybrid, is definitely a good way to go to de-carbonize the sector."

The Oceans North report said the key to jumpstarting the shift is for governments to set a "market signal" by setting clear targets for emission reductions, as has occurred in the motor vehicle sector.

The study calls for Ottawa to include commercial fisheries in its marine climate action plan, and set the goal of having "at least 10 per cent of the lobster fleet, about 300 boats, powered by electricity or zero-emission fuels such as green hydrogen by 2030."

Aspin said incentives and targets will be key to getting there. 

"We've been talking to the federal government, the provincial government. There's been discussions of one-third, one-third, one-third type of thing. That would be a perfect sort of setup," Aspin said, referring to a three-way cost-sharing on the purchase of new boats.

"Whether we get that much — as far as incentives go — or not, it's hard to say, but it's going to take something like that to to get things rolling."

Aspin said his company is getting close to having an electric lobster boat to sell commercially.

"The fishery is a business, basically, for people that own the boat. So I think… the price is going to have to come down to the point where it makes business sense with the incentives," he said. 

"You're going to have to get a payback in five years or something like that to see some uptake."

He added: "Our company has invested a lot in the early solution and we're not at a price point yet where I think it makes commercial sense. But we're getting there now, and I'd say we're within six months to a year of being able to put something on the market that is within the price point that makes sense, if there's incentives."

Aspin said he has been surprised by the level of interest from the fishing industry on P.E.I.