How the Collaboration Came About
When / Where
Praxis first connected with Ocius Technologies in 2019, reaching out to the fellow Australian company because its uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) – powered entirely by solar and wind, and built to remain on mission for as long as possible – presented a market-leading ideal use case for high-performance marine solar.
What was their objective / brief
Ocius’ central requirement was persistence: the ability to keep a vessel on mission, uninterrupted, for as long as possible. Because their original USVs run entirely on solar, wind and wave energy, maximising solar generation was critical to how far and how long the vessels could operate. The brief called for custom panel shapes and plug locations to suit the vessels’ space-constrained decks, along with solar that was robust enough for the marine environment yet easy to install. Ocius also valued partnering with another Australian company, sharing local expertise between two domestic innovators.
‘As a renewable energy powered vessel, we need to maximise solar energy output. Praxis has done a marvellous job at tailoring their solution to our needs to ensure the available surface area on our vessel is utilised to the maximum extent possible. Working with a sovereign Australian company is also really important to Ocius – and Praxis’ local support and supply chain supports us and our customers’
Robert Dane, Founder and CEO, Ocius
The Collaboration
Praxis designed custom solar arrays engineered specifically for Ocius’ USVs, maximising usable solar coverage across available surfaces and engineering the system to run reliably, unattended, so each vessel could stay on mission longer before ever needing to return to shore.
Result
The solar system was first deployed on Ocius’ Bluebottle USVs and now also features on the newer Royal Australian Navy owned platforms, as well as platforms owned by Ocius customer ThayerMahan in the US. Because each array is custom-designed to fit, the solution scales across any vessel in the Ocius fleet – and the objective stays the same on every one: more time on mission.
The science and stats
- Praxis’ technology was tested in real-world back-to-back testing against the marine solar incumbent. Same boat size and type, same time, same location.
- That testing showed that Praxis delivered 35% more power, enabling increased mission duration and persistent operations
‘Ocius set an incredibly high bar for what a fully autonomous, sun and wind powered vessel could be — no fallback, no compromise, just precision engineering from the deck up. For Ocius, persistence was the goal. Every square centimetre of solar has to earn its place because it translates directly into more time on mission before a vessel ever has to come home. Partnering with another Australian innovator pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on the water, from Bluebottle through to Greybottle, has been a genuinely rewarding partnership’
Cameron Donaldson, Founder & CTO, Praxis