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Solar Boat To Cross the Atlantic
Roland Piquepaille writes, "A group from Switzerland will soon attempt the first Atlantic crossing in a solar-powered boat. This ship, named SUN21, is a 14-meter-long catamaran able to sleep 5 or 6 persons. The goal is to leave Seville, Spain, in December 2006 and to reach ports in Florida and New York in the spring of 2007. This boat will achieve its 7,000-mile trip at a speed of 5-6 knots, about the speed of a sailing yacht, by using photovoltaic cells and without burning a single gallon of fuel. The consortium behind this project wants to demonstrate that the time has come for solar boats." The boat will cost about $556,000 to build and it will be for sale at some point after its crossing.
Every sailing vessel is basically a solar powered boat. Been doing that for eons. Why change now?
Catboats with sails makes a very reliable clip night and day with little or no fancy technology - and can easily be mated up to such a solar-panel system for an added kick and redundancy...
Because wind and currents don't always go in the direction you might want them to?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Because they can. :)
...but haven't people been crossing the Atlantic in boats powered (indirectly) by the sun, without burning a single gallon of fuel, for around 514 years now?
But how much oil did it take to make the solar cells?
Censorship is obscene. Patriotism is bigotry. Faith is a vice. Slashdot 2.0 sucks.
What if the sun doesn't shine at all during the journey? After all, there's a lot of funky weather patterns going on these days.
With a trimaran design, one could make a low displacement ship with a huge deck area. Of course, there's always the cloudy day to mess things up, but with enough batteries on cuold get through a day or two. Really though, this isn't about efficiency, it's more of a "Look what we can do." kind of thing, and a good starting point for research into marine solar applications. How much does salt water effect common types of solar panels? What's the most efficient type of motor for this application? What's the best way to mount solar panels onto a rolling and pitching surface? These are all questions that might be answered by a program such as this.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Why does that matter? Sailboats can go in any direction other than straight into the wind. They aren't pushed forward by it.
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
the ship will undertake the first motorized crossing of the Atlantic without using a drop of gasoline
Except for all the nuclear powered ships and submarines.
I'd have serious concerns about reliability etc. too. Consider that many sailing adventures end up with broken masts and similar misfortunes that people are able to recover from because they're using ancient technology. They can put together something that sails from broken masts and torn sails etc and limp in to port. Fixing up broken PV is probably not something you can just do armed with a hammer, saw and a knife.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I think what's most interesting about this is hybrid vessels, that use both sail and solar power. Obviously the big limitation with sailboats is a lack of wind, which often occurs in fair-weather scenarios (high pressure system, thus clear skies). Solar propulsion would often complement wind power when needed most. It would also be useful for the other times when sail power is not used, such as navigating in and out of the docks.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
It's a Roland Pigpail article. It's delusional. No need to worry.
time for what? really expensive toys that take several months to get across the Altantic?
anything but mainstream.
Experimental prototypes and test beds sure. That doesn't justify "the consortium behind this project wants to demonstrate that the time has come for solar boats." Just like the guy who flew across the English channel by pedaling. It was cool and it demonstrated some advanced aeronautical design but he didn't claim that the time has come for pedal powered flight.
I don't think anyone is getting the big picture. This is more of a move towards powering larger and larger vessels up to the size of today's fuel-burning ships. I don't think they're going "lol, who needs wind guys, am I right?" I think they realize as you must that it's rather impossible to make modern day ferries and passenger liners that don't burn fuel with current research. Hey maybe it's even possible to add to the technology of sails so much that you could make faster boats that use sails. Who knows?All I'm saying is, they're probably looking at this as the first step in a larger process and picture. If they're not, then they're missing out.
1. Effectively, sailboats can go "straight into the wind" by zigzagging (tacking). Unfortunately, this doesn't work so well in narrow channels (e.g. rivers). In this regard, the solar ship would have an edge, particularly on heavily used rivers.
2. As many people here have pointed out, sailboats have been around for a very long time, meaning that we've had a lot of time to improve their design and construction. If the first generation of a solar ship can be competitive with current generation sailboats, I think that this bodes well for the solar ship in the long haul.
3. Owing to the enormous forces involved in propelling a large ship using wind, the design, construction and operation of sailing vessels can be quite expensive. Half a million for a boat that can cross the Atlantic doesn't seem so bad, especially for a first-generation custom-built effort. With large scale production, I would expect to see prices come down.
4. The masts, sails and standing rigging of a sailing vessel seem incompatible with modern top-loading cargo facilities, whereas I can imagine that a solar boat could be designed for compatibility with existing port equipment.
5. Although batteries weigh a lot, so does fuel. And, unlike cars and trucks driving cross-country, ships crossing an ocean don't have the luxury of refueling, so they have to carry it all with them. On a solar-powered ship, you just need enough battery capacity to get you through cloudy patches.
I'm not 100% convinced it'll work, but the idea has merit.
'Nuff said.
Someone double check my estimate here please. I applaud all research efforts, but I believe that there is such thing as "useless" research/exploration/etc. A typical solar panel of a given size will take anywhere from 7 to 14 years to pay for itself in terms of energy used to produce it in the first place. In other words, it takes X watt-hours of energy to produce the panel. The panel then takes 7-14 years to produce the equivalent X watt-hours of energy.
Would a solar panel even survive 7-14 years out in the sea? Would it be affordable to maintain and prevent the solar panel array from corroding away? I personally don't think so. This sounds like just another way for the "comfortably wealthy" to contribute to pollution and feel better about themselves at the same time.
Yet another gimmick story.