World's Largest Solar Boat Revealed
The world's largest solar boat has been revealed. Planet Solar is a 102-foot yacht which has a 50-foot beam and weighs around 60 tons. The topside of the ship is covered with 5,300 square feet of solar panels and it can hit a top speed of around 15 knots. Two men Raphaël Domjan and Gerard d'Aboville will take the catamaran around the world starting in April 2011. The voyage is designed to raise awareness of the carbon footprint created by boats used to ship goods. Around 1.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide (in 2008) were expelled shipping goods. That is 6% of the total carbon dioxide emissions and twice as much as air transport. Check out more images of the yacht in progress and learn more about the mission at the Planet Solar website.
[via Christian Science Monitor]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
dave Mar 2nd 2010 7:48AM
cool looking ship, but what is the practical uses of it? Can it be used for merchant shipping, can the solar concept be used to build solar freighters? Or will that be too much to ask power wise? What is the carbon footprint to make the cells, batteries, electrical components etc, etc.Will that be lower than what we currently employ? Hope this technoligy can become economical for many uses, so far solar stuff is quite costly, I want to retrofit my house for solar electricity but the primary cost, verses estimated upkeap/repair doesn,t show an advantage to standard electric grid costs. good luck to these guys, this is innovation in progress
gabeh9 Mar 2nd 2010 12:27PM
It gave me the idea to invent solar paint.
John C. Billingsley, Jr. Mar 2nd 2010 8:12AM
Pretty but how often do you have to swab the decks and what's the speed at nite.
ronschade1 Mar 2nd 2010 9:12PM
Impractical, no significant contribution, just an ego booster for the builders. Stirling engines heated by parbolic mirrors would be less expensive and provide practical power.
mfhabib Mar 2nd 2010 8:37AM
Cool! Kind of looks like the Starship Enterprise! Great to finally see brainpower directed to attacking the problems of laying our miserable carbon footprint everywhere. Thanks!
Sidney Clouston Mar 2nd 2010 3:59PM
I was consulted on a design out of the UK by an Italian PhD grad Student. Dave and John bring up historical points. Solar cost has come way down and Finite Fossil Fuel cost are up and going to go up untill out of sight. The fuel I mean cost
will remain visible in the form of empty wallets.
The NASA Helios Ariplane that broke the World Record for altitude 95 thousand feet or so was out fited with Hydrogen for Fuel Cells. So John night time? Try a
little electrolysis of all that water for your H and Fuel Cells. I give it two thumbs up.
Paul Mar 2nd 2010 8:50AM
This Boat is the Wave of the Future. It is time to put Solar on Many Boats and Cars and on Roofs of Buildings. Think of All the Jobs that would be created. Lets Stop Waiting and Lets Start Doing
hillsamurai Mar 2nd 2010 9:06AM
It is a nice concept, but I have a few questions. Where would the solar cells be placed? With the exception of the superstructure for accomodations and the bridge, very single inch of space on a container ship is used for storing the containers.
Unless the speed can be increased up to a continuous 25 knots, it will not serve its purpose. How would the vessel be powered at night? Energy Accumulators are heavy, and they would reduce the number of containers that the vessel could carry.
eteeuwe Mar 2nd 2010 9:29AM
Have you ever wondered why the manufacturing plants of todays "advanced" photovoltaic panels are located in the "outback" of third world countries??? Its not because of cheap labor. Environmental laws in regard to heavy metals, volitile organic compounds, and their waste toxicity precludes their manufacture in countries with strict environmental regulations.
According to releases by the builder, the Solar Yacht will carry two, whole, live humans. To make a solar powered ship large enough to carry the capacity of one PanaMax, you would be building a bridge across the ocean, by proxy.
Ed Mar 2nd 2010 9:52AM
I feel that Al Gore and his environmentalist pals should be ashamed of their lies just like Obama’s politician buddies can’t tell the truth. Obama moved to the mainland U.S. only 30 years ago. This is why he doesn’t know (or care) about our history, traditions and heritage. The glaciers ARE melting. How are glaciers made? They are packed snow from millions of years of snowfall. This then turns to ice. I believe that we are not getting enough snow at the poles to form ice. What forms snow? Evaporated water. If we had global warming you would expect more water in the atmosphere from evaporation. Then we would have more snow at the poles. We’re not, so another theory would be that we are experiencing global COOLING and not getting adequate water droplets into the atmosphere to form snow. WOW!
Bob Mar 2nd 2010 10:07AM
"Around 1.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide (in 2008) were expelled shipping goods. That is 6% of the total carbon dioxide emissions and twice as much as air transport."
Twice as much output, yes, but the ships moved 1000X more goods than by air.
borisbadenovisback Mar 2nd 2010 10:08AM
"Carbon footrpint"? Haven't you idiots heard that the whole "global warming" thingy is a complete fraud? I guess it's like UFOs and macroevolution: ya just wanna believe.....'cause it's gotta be true....
pwhallon Mar 2nd 2010 10:16AM
The design looks like a wave piercing catamaran, which should be very eficient to drive through the water.
At night she'll probably run on batteries or fuel cells.
That's on helluva big floating tanning bed...LOL
HUGO Mar 2nd 2010 3:27PM
YOU "THINK" TOO MUCH, EDDY. UN-LAX, MAN!
BP Mar 2nd 2010 10:41AM
Where do the fishing poles go? What good is a boat without fishing poles? It looks like another celebration of uselessness.
Weeble Wobble Mar 2nd 2010 10:43AM
I agree with a few other posts. Where's all the sunbather's? All this flat, open space, and not one tanning nut?
Jed Springfield Mar 2nd 2010 10:54AM
CATaraman? I see THREE "hulls", no? Therefore TRImaran.
BP Mar 2nd 2010 10:46AM
Where do the fishing poles go?
What good is a boat without fishing poles?
It looks like another celebrationof uselesness.
Jack Finch Mar 2nd 2010 11:07AM
- Hello there! Can you take us in tow? We're solar-electric - and after 2 days storm we're becalmed!
- Electric are ye? Arrh! Ye've not the brains God gave to jellyfish! Will yer batt'ries handle 20 foot combers when your jib's icebound? Blow me down, but we'll tow ye, a gale's a bearing on ye.
- B-but what about your carbon footprint??? We're fighting the use of fossil fuels.
- Arrh! ye damnd jellyfish! We're running before the wind - with all tops'ls unbound and nary a speck 'o coal burnt save in the cookstove. We're greener than ye'll ever be - 200 year before yer grandad. Heave them a line!
walt Mar 2nd 2010 11:09AM
5300 ft2=~600 mtr2; at equator at high noon 640 watts/mtr2 =~384kw;1 hp=.75 kw; so it's powered by a 500 hp engine and thats only for a few hours around noon sailing the equator. Some high performance cars have more HP. Correct me if i'm wrong