Paris Olympics to Showcase Hybrid and Electric Boats

­When the Olympics return to France this summer for the centennial of the 1924 Paris games, it’ll be slightly more green than normal – 31 boats selected for the unique opening ceremonies will be fitted with electric or hybrid electric-thermal engines.

Course, the Olympics, in general, aren’t exactly a model for energy conservation. For the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, flying the 28,500 athletes and staff to Brazil generated about 2,000 kilotons (kt) of greenhouse gases (plus about 2,500 more for spectators).

And as The Smithsonian Magazine points out, the brand new Olympic stadiums – which range in price from $100 million to nearly a billion – often sit unused after the Games’ completion.

For every Turner Field – previously the Centennial Olympic Stadium for the 1996 Atlanta games – there’s an event like the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, wherein the training fields and pools, a beach volleyball court, and a hockey stadium were left to rot.

Though things are looking up – the 2022 Beijing event, the first “green” Olympics, supposedly ran on 100% renewable energy (in stark contrast with China’s less-than-stellar pollution record, apparently the worst on the planet).   

Meanwhile, the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony will be a first of its kind. Instead of taking place in a stadium, it’ll happen on the water – the Seine River, specifically.

And on the Seine, the 31 vessels carrying the athletes will showcase renewable energy technologies, with 20 of them converted for that purpose and 11 custom-built.

They’ll be part of a Paris fleet that includes about 150 commercial craft.