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

Impressive, but

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure that sailing boats have been doing that with only wind power for many centuries.

Re:Impressive, but

[gstrickler]

Don't know why you were modded down, but you're correct.

Nice demonstration. It's cool that they did it, but it's completely impractical.

It would have made more sense to use a combination of sails and solar. A hybrid solar/sail would be far more practical, and would have completed the trip much faster.

What a load of muddled energy unit drivel.

[Anonymous Coward]

"537 sq metres of panels which produced from 500 to 600 kw/h in fair weather"
No it produced 500 to 600 kW, whether it did it for hours or not depends on how long the "fair weather" lasted.
"which meant it could go for 300km on a single charge" - meaningless. Perhaps they are talking about batteries. Who knows.
If so they are saying (somewhat unrelated to the peak power generating capacity of the solar panels) that their batteries can store 500kw/hrs. and so can be charged in an hour?? Who can tell. And perhaps they are able to run (at some percentage of peak speed) for 300km.

Of course none of this tells us anything really, since what you need for this to be "remarkable" would be to run much faster than the wind, otherwise I'd much prefer sailing.

Re:What a load of muddled energy unit drivel.

[srjh]

There's only about a kW of solar power available per square metre, and solar panels aren't anywhere near 100% efficient, so it can't be the output of the panels.

This is why it's bad to have the scientifically illiterate writing articles - they mangle the units beyond recognition so you have absolutely no idea what they're talking about.

What a pointless and stupid 'achievement'

[syncrotic]

We know what solar panels can do. We know what electric motors can do. Putting the two together in a boat does not a novel invention make. Sailing it around the world is not a notable achievement.

It's the same as all those ridiculous solar-powered races across Australia: they don't bring a solar-powered car one iota closer to reality, because a solar powered car will never produce more than a few kilowatts, and that will never be enough to overcome the air resistance of a vehicle in which a person can sit somewhat upright.

Technology doesn't advance to overcome the laws of physics. Solar powered transportation of any sort will never do anything more than make possible novelty journeys for people with more money than sense.

Re:What a pointless and stupid 'achievement'

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, they do dumbass,where precisely does that equipment get tested in the real world? Or how about what's the impetus to creating it for something that's possibly decades away?

What makes it notable is that nobody had done that before. But then again, I suppose that first trip by Magellan around the world wasn't notable either because they had boats and they had sails, so clearly putting the two together and using them to travel around the world isn't notable. Which is probably why nobody knows who he is.

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.

Re:kW/h?

[TubeSteak]

http://www.planetsolar.org/the-boat

Surface area of solar modules: 537 m2
PV panel efficiency: 18.8 %
Installed PV power: 93.5 kW (127.0 HP)
*Puissance moteur maximale: 120 kW
Average engine consumption: 20 kW (26.8 HP)

*Maximum motor output

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:Even better

[Anonymous Coward]

There's also towing generators for sailboats that have been around forever. When you have a nice amount of wind and are cruising along you throw the generator off the back on a line and it charges the batteries as it's towed along. They're very common amongst boaties.

Redundant, we have already solved this problem

[Holi]

2 of these http://chetcomarine.com/coleman130wsolarpanel.aspx, 1 of these http://www.wholesalesolar.com/products.folder/wind-folder/airx48marine.html.

Replace my 30 hp Yanmar Diesel with an electric motor. I really only use it for docking and mooring, I'll luff through the doldrums. I worry more about too much wind rather than not enough.

Double my current 6 6v golf cart batteries. and I could circumnavigate in comfort, and use all my gadgets.

and I'd need a new boat, my little Pearson is fun for the coast but I think the ocean would break her

Just saying that we have better ways to perform the task already.

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.