Contact us Open application Home

Green Technology & Electromobility > Case

Battery development for Nilar

Johan Kenneberg is a software developer for embedded systems and has a burning interest in everything to do with cutting-edge technology. Interest in innovative and creative products meant that Johan was given a contract at battery developer Nilar. They required someone who could shoulder the role as technical sales, and also implement customer changes to the products.

Challenge
The contract consisted primarily of integrating Nilar’s system in their customers’ systems. A project is most often started by Johan participating in sales meetings at the client, both to understand the client’s needs, and to contribute with technical expertise of the products. After a successful sales meeting, there was a development project where Nilar’s products were adapted to be integrated at the client, often with Johan as both project manager and one of the development resources.

Implementation
One of Johan’s projects was to fit out an electric ferry with batteries. The battery bank was larger than any previous project of that voltage, and the energy could be obtained from solar cells, fuel cells or from a charging station in the harbor. None of this was directly supported in the platform, and the first prototype delivery was needed within three months.

An entirely new charging strategy was created in collaboration with the battery chemists at Nilar. Johan and a further software developer then worked closely together to rewrite large parts of the software for it to be suitable for the ferry. New versions were regularly sent up to the factory in Gävle to be tested on-site by experts. The major changes required continual verification in order to keep to the time scale, as well as in-depth cooperation with the entire development organization to get it right first time.

Results
The battery system was supplied to Britain on time and was installed on-site by Johan. After two days of carrying batteries and wiring, a fully functioning electric ferry was delivered to the client. The ferry is a demo project to show that it is perfectly possible to run cross-Channel ferries on just electricity.

  • Johan Kenneberg

    Johan Kenneberg

    Systems engineer electrical & software