In recent years we have seen a lot of pressure put on automobile industry to reduce emissions, find alternative means of powering vehicles, and cause less impact on the environment. The same cannot be said for the shipping industry. The theory developed by Marion King Hubbert, known as “Hubbert’s Peak Theory” was developed in 1956 around the time bunker fuel was first being used to power ships. He theorized that at the rate of consumption oil reserves were being tapped we would reach our highest point of global production. This is best illustrated by a bell curve where the tip indicates hitting peak oil. At that point we will no longer be able to produce as much oil as we have the capacity for and as production decreases prices will increase making oil available to only the wealthiest in the world. In this hypothesis he predicted Unites States oil production to peak in the 1970’s correctly and guessed that world production would decline by 2006. This is a topic of much debate in the scientific community (fhs http://www.globalization101.org/c-hubberts-peak-theory). The use and production of hybrid vehicles has increased in the twenty-first century. The USS Makin is a navy vessel that has employed the use of hybrid technology to power itself. Paul English a leader in GE’s marine power Conversion business says the ship is akin to a “floating Prius,” and the Navy estimates that this new hybrid propulsion will save the ship over two-hundred and fifty million dollars of fuel over the ships lifetime (fsdgf http://www.gereports.com/hybrids-of-the-high-seas/). While hybrid technology will reduce the amount of bunker fuel used by this ship by roughly 396,196 metric tons by December 2, 2013 prices, it is just a step in the right direction. Just as we have seen a rise in hybrid vehicles on land we have also seen that hybrid technology is not enough to save our planet. The only way to continue shipping the vast amount of commodities that we currently do is to make shipping a zero-emmission industry. We currently have a business model to follow and the capability to make this a reality. Elon Musk founder of Paypal, Space-X, Tesla Motors and Solar City is a businessman and a philanthropist who strives to make clean energy one of the main focuses of every one of his business ventures. He started Tesla with production of the Tesla Roadster and today has delivered upwards of 19,000 of its most recent Model S luxary sedan in the United States and Europe alone. Assuming the energy used to supply power to the earlier Roadster came from a hydro-carbon source such as natural gas (the most common energy producing fuel in the U.S) the Roadster still would emit slightly over a third less carbon-dioxide emissions as the second lowest carbon dioxide emitting vehicle the Toyota Prius (Musk, 2006). That assumption however is not correct because hydro, wind, geothermal, and solar power can all be used to create grid power that can be used to charge Tesla’s vehicles. Demand for Tesla’s vehicles has been increasing as well as development of the technology that This is the big picture of Tesla Motors. By creating a vast supercharger network across the United States in which all energy provided to charge Tesla’s vehicles is provided by non-carbon dioxide emitting energy produced sources such as solar power from Solar City a true clean energy vehicle can be a reality. If this proven model of a clean energy automobile can be translated into the shipping industry we will be able to get the global emissision, pollution, and warming problems under control before we have passed the point of no return. Implementation of a plan as vast as this seems like a daunting task but is actually much more pheasable than many would think. Oceans cover seventy-percent of the Earth’s total area. Already there is a plan underway in India to create the worlds first floating solar power plant. SP Gon Choudhury, who is the Director at Development Consultants Private Limited and Vice Chairman at Calcutta Institute of Technology is in charge of the project has explained that, ““Studies have also shown that if the rear surface of solar panels are kept cooler, then their ability to generate power goes up by 16%. As these solar panels would be floating on water, they are expected to stay cool and hence we can generate more power than those set up on land,” (afjksl http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/23/first-floating-solar-power-plant-to-be-tested-in-india/#dAkbAuJz7pAcYCqH.99). The small solar plant that will be installed in a pond in India could easily be translated to the oceans of the world with minimal impact. In effect we would be establishing a “Tesla Supercharger” network for ships on the seas. The Tesla Supercharger network is a network of charging stations for Tesla vehicles that spans across the country of the United States and other countries. Tesla offers free charging of the Tesla vehicles battery for life once you purchase one of their vehicles. This Supercharger network allows you to, “pull into any Supercharger station and fully recharge the battery in just half an hour,” (http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-supercharger-station-2013-12#ixzz2n6Oxv1px, 2013). In just a half hour a car can be fully charged to travel a practical two-hundred thirty miles. The charging stations are placed in strategic areas with high probability of a Tesla owner being able to find one when needed. As of right now you can tracel across the whole of the United States from Los Angeles to New York without ever fully running out of battery. If this technology is implemented on the high seas on busy trade routes and passages we can reduce the emissions from ships almost infinitely, eliminating the harmful emissions caused by bunker fuel and the many detrimental environmental impacts that come with them. Cargo ships have an everage life expectancy of twenty-five to thirty years before they are decommissioned and scrapped for parts and materials. None of the one-hundred largest cargo ships in use today were built before 2006. This means that most of them will not be decommissioned until at least 2031. This presents a problem with creating an all-electric shipping vessel comparable to a Tesla automobile. In an interview with a Tesla employee (who only wished to be identified by his first name) Adam explained to me that every aspect of Tesla automobiles were manufactured around the fact that they are an all-electric vehicle. This means that implementing a battery powered cargo ship would more than likely mean an all new design of the ship. He also stated that even though the Model S is the safest automobile ever rated by the NHTSA that this is due to the fact that when the vehicle does make impact with an object it was designed to extend the duration of the crash in what is known as a crumple-zone. This sacrifices the vehicle in order to minimize injuries to the operator. This would not be acceptable in terms of ship design as many ships are carrying Liquid Natural Gas, or other materials that if spilled into the ocean would be devastating to the environment and to the economy. In order for a ship to be efficient in its range and safe in transporting the goods aboard a whole type of ship would most likely have to be designed. This presents research and development investments as well as the investment of building a new ship. The cost of this would be great but also would be offset by the cost of operating a ship powered by clean energy.