Slashdot Mirror
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."
Wouldn't it be cheating if he rows across the ocean in a solar-powered boat?
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Of course, wind powered boats have been circumnavigating the globe since the 16th century, and can be faster, too. So this is interesting, but not exactly that impressive as a demonstration of eco-friendly sea travel.
Ferdinant Magellan did it in 1520.
No, Magellan only made it as far as the Philippines and then he was killed. It was Juan Sebastian Elcano who completed the voyage.
A Hindenburg that floats.
Um, airships do float.
Anyone have an estimate of how much energy it takes to produce and transport 17,000 pounds of lithium ion batteries?
Is this really an efficient solar use compared to, say, sail?
Moving heavy loads by sea is very efficient. You don't see "container-planes" for a reason. The buoyancy from the displaced water does the lifting, you just move it.
Most ships need ballast anyhow. Not clear that there's any net weight penalty at all from carrying the batteries.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Striking that in a community of self-identified "geeks" and "techies" that the notion of "proof of concept" would be so difficult to grasp.
"Big deal, they walked around on the moon, but they had to wear big heavy protective suits to do it, so clearly, we shouldn't have a space program. And so what that the Mars Rover is tooling around on the surface of Mars. It moves really slowly so we shouldn't do any more Mars exploration until we can bring a Ford Explorer and get around like Jesus intended, with internal combustion engines burning refined oil."
Here's a group that will embrace any new technology, stand in line to buy an Apple iWristwatch, but the mere mention of anything having to do with research into energy from any source besides Big Oil, Big Coal and Big Nukes and they dig in their heels like somebody's trying to take away their binkie.
Sometimes I'm surprised they're not holding out until their laptops can run on a two-stroke engine.
You are welcome on my lawn.
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.