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Solar-Powered Boat Carries 8.5 Tons of Lithium-Ion Batteries

bshell writes "The Verge has a great photo-essay about Tûranor PlanetSolar, the first boat to circle the globe with solar power. 'The 89,000 kg (nearly 100 ton) ship needs a massive solar array to capture enough energy to push itself through the ocean. An impressive 512 square meters (roughly 5,500 square feet) of photovoltaic cells, to be exact, charge the 8.5 tons of lithium-ion batteries that are stored in the ship's two hulls.' The boat is currently in NYC. Among other remarkable facts, the captain (Gérard d'Aboville) is one of those rare individuals who solo-rowed across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, journeys that took 71 and 134 days, respectively. The piece has a lot of detail about control systems and design."

7 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Isn't that cheating? by TWX · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wouldn't it be cheating if he rows across the ocean in a solar-powered boat?

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    1. Re:Isn't that cheating? by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

      No. Cheating would be poking a hole in the back of the battery packs, waiting for the seawater to hit the lithium and taking off like a rocket.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  2. Re:Why the stupidity by lobiusmoop · · Score: 3, Funny

    Clearly they were working on a fishing vessel to go out trolling for engineers. (And quite successfully too it seems)

    --
    "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
  3. Re:Alternative technology? by quenda · · Score: 3, Funny

    But what if you wanted to move into the air current? You'd have to wait for the direction to change. It'll never catch on.

  4. Re:Very nice by lkernan · · Score: 5, Funny

    A Hindenburg that floats.

    Um, airships do float.

  5. 10.3.250.11 by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 3, Funny

    I am going to hack the shit out of him once I finish pwnzoring 127.0.0.1

  6. alternative energy by stenvar · · Score: 5, Funny

    We should be investigating the use of wind energy for moving ships. Perhaps there is some way (probably very complicated!) in which we could avoid converting the wind energy to electrical energy before converting it into propulsion. I have a feeling we might be able to create some zero emission ships that way.