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Swiss Solar Powered Catamaran Finishes 'Round the World Tour

Posted by timothy on from the honestly-they-were-just-sick-of-mountains dept.

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."

2 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Impressive, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Impressive, but by gstrickler · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

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      make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false