Swiss Solar Powered Catamaran Finishes 'Round the World Tour

First time accepted submitter wokie78 writes "The PlanetSolar, a Swiss solar powered catamaran, has just arrived to Monaco (French original), its initial port of departure, after finishing its voyage around the world which it started in September 2010. Its five-member crew completed a 60,006 km trip fully powered by 537 square meters of solar panels, which produced from 500 to 600 kw/h in fair weather — which meant it could go for 300 km on a single charge. Everything on the boat was solar powered."

Comments

Even better

[gr8_phk]

A company I worked for did integration work on a hybrid electric sail boat. With electric props you can charge the battery from the wind while sailing - use the motors as generators. They produced enough power to run all electrical loads on the boat including air conditioning with a very small loss in speed. In dock you may want some solar to keep it charged.

Re:What a pointless and stupid 'achievement'

[CrimsonAvenger]

Nautilus breaking through the ice at the north pole, proving the viability of nuclear submarines and, at the same time, doing something that had never been done.

Nautilus didn't break through the ice at the North Pole. It sailed under ice the whole way over the North Pole.

Skate was the first to surface at the Pole, I'm pretty sure. Least, that's what they told us at Sub School.

It's not about effectiveness

[dutchwhizzman]

It's not about effectiveness. It's about proving that solar panel and electrics have come far enough to actually do this. This is a first and it's a technology showcase. Now we have a record time and some other crew with a more efficient solar only boat will probably try to beat it.

First non-stop trip around the world in a solar boat? First solo crew trip around the world in a solar boat? Expect Richard Branson to get into the race, once the time to complete a trip will fit into his schedule.

Re:Impressive, but

[voidphoenix]

Not disagreeing with you, but your post isn't entirely fair, because if you trace the chain back, everything is ultimately powered by the Big Bang. One step forward is gravity, which feeds fusion, which generates energy and all the other elements from hydrogen. So we have to draw the line somewhere to have a rational discussion. I'd suggest containing the discussion to our solar system. So we basically have 3 sources of energy: Solar, which feeds wind, tidal, hydro and petrochem; Nuclear; and Geothermal, which is fed by gravity and nuclear.