Excellent. New and varied application of Solar PV. Once it was Solar Cars,then Solar Plane and now Solar Boat! Great Advances in Solar Energy Applications.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
Wind Energy Expert
E-mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com
A look at the world's largest solar-powered boat
August 3, 2011 | Length: 00:01:05
The Turanor PlanetSolar is the first boat to travel the world using only solar power. It's covered in over 500 square meters of solar panels, which connect to one of the two electric motors in each hull. Check out the boat in action as it reaches speeds of up to 14 knots.
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World's Largest Solar powered Boat
Posted by anumakonda.jagadeesh@...
3rd Aug 2011
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Smart Planet - dumb staff.
Posted by dduggerbiocepts
23rd Aug 2011
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World's Largest Solar powered Boat
Posted by anumakonda.jagadeesh@...
3rd Aug 2011
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Plausible idea (maybe)....Design less than stellar.
Power to Rate (speed; torque, etc.) Ratio is everything.
If you want to power a boat (real time demand), using solar power, you had better be sure that the boat is well designed (more than just light weight materials). My less then expert eyes caught some design deficiencies out of the box. The screws (propellers) are half in/half out of the water. They also sit directly behind the hulls. This might work if the hulls taper toward a conical (like a torpedo) shape. Placing the screws at the center-point of the back of the hull would require the hull to go deeper into the water (think SWATH SHIP), which would unfortunately increase the drag coefficient of the hull (not really desirable). Adding rudders would also decrease efficiency. In addition, mounting all of the solar panels horizontally on top of the boat is less than great. When you are at sea, the sunlight comes at you from everywhere, since it bounces off of thousands and thousands of waves. There are already several very successful boat builders out there who design and build very efficient hull/propeller combinations (look up Ferretii Mochi Hybrid....think electric motors)...Look up Volvo Penta-Drive...your boat's propellers are mounted in the wrong location and backwards.
I think a better approach would be to start with the most energy efficient boats built today and find ways to incorporate solar cells into those designs to augment and/or replace (whenever possible), fossil fuel energy sources.
If you want to power a boat (real time demand), using solar power, you had better be sure that the boat is well designed (more than just light weight materials). My less then expert eyes caught some design deficiencies out of the box. The screws (propellers) are half in/half out of the water. They also sit directly behind the hulls. This might work if the hulls taper toward a conical (like a torpedo) shape. Placing the screws at the center-point of the back of the hull would require the hull to go deeper into the water (think SWATH SHIP), which would unfortunately increase the drag coefficient of the hull (not really desirable). Adding rudders would also decrease efficiency. In addition, mounting all of the solar panels horizontally on top of the boat is less than great. When you are at sea, the sunlight comes at you from everywhere, since it bounces off of thousands and thousands of waves. There are already several very successful boat builders out there who design and build very efficient hull/propeller combinations (look up Ferretii Mochi Hybrid....think electric motors)...Look up Volvo Penta-Drive...your boat's propellers are mounted in the wrong location and backwards.
I think a better approach would be to start with the most energy efficient boats built today and find ways to incorporate solar cells into those designs to augment and/or replace (whenever possible), fossil fuel energy sources.
Posted by PSFTGURU@...
Updated - 9th Aug 2011
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Smart Planet - dumb staff.
When I try to see the solar boat - instead I get an electric car video.
Posted by dduggerbiocepts
23rd Aug 2011