Solar-powered Swiss boat crosses the Atlantic

MW-Line, a Swiss boat-maker known mostly for its water taxis, has successfully piloted a craft across the Atlantic using nothing but solar power, chocolates, neutrality, and hope. The boat, conspicuously named Sun21, is the first of its eco-friendly kind to attempt the journey. The 46-foot catamaran made the trip -- from the Canary Islands to the Bahamas -- in just under a month, and according to MW-Line, the operating costs are 20 to 45 times lower than traditional motorboats. The company claims their next project is to take a solar-powered ship around the world, and then get righteously wasted.

[Via metaefficient]

[James @ Jun 20th 2007 4:55AM]

Although this is fairly impressive, there is a better source of renewable energy called wind. That would have got them across the atlantic quicker.

[spam_from_engadget @ Jun 20th 2007 6:04AM]

Yes, all they need to do is to flip that huge panel into a vertical position and they've got a great sail!

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Jun 20th 2007 6:33AM]

They should have added sails to Transatlantic21 for an extra eco-friendly speed boost.

[noisia @ Jun 20th 2007 6:40AM]

hello you descendents of glorious einstein.
you guys totally miss the point. its NOT about making publicity for the whole renewable energy sector.
its just about making publicity for solar cells/power.

so, as like someone said yesterday, stop using my bandwith.

greetz

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Jun 20th 2007 6:43AM]

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=transatlantic21

[schmic @ Jun 20th 2007 6:57AM]

well, what do you do, when there is no wind? Exactly, most people turn on the motor! the whole experience was to show, that there is technology out there which can perform even in bigger projects than just recharge your cell phone! Use these technologies, make it happen. We don't necessarily need oil, we have alternatives... let's explore them!

[McGinley @ Jun 20th 2007 7:14AM]

Thanks to you I have been converted to optimism!

Im now looking forward to a brighter,fossil fuel-less,solar powered future!Mother earth is counting on us!Come on people,we can do it!

[schmic @ Jun 20th 2007 8:10AM]

not sure, whether you are taking the piss out of me ;) but we can already do a lot! I only know numbers for Switzerland but this stuff should work anywhere. For example, it is possible to build houses that don't need any energy input, I even saw some studies where the houses produced more energy than they needed!

If all the electronic devices would be completely turned off (taken from the power line) instead of putting to sleep then we could safe energy for a whole nuclear power plant (although this number might be slightly over exaggerated by the anti power plant lobby)

Another fantastic project: a tower out of plastic (anyway, a see through material). The sun heats it up and the air rises. On top is a turbine and makes a vast amount of energy! There was a prototype planned for the world expo in Germany a few years ago but was not built in the end because of money.

Another project which proves that sun energy works: they built a huge power plant in Spain where the sun is collected with mirrors and concentrated in one spot. So far they are absolutely stunned at the energy they can produce and want to increase it. The amazing thing about it is that it is mainly built for Germany so they actually plan to transport all the electricity over to Germany!

Iceland claims they can produce enough H2 to make all the public transport in Europe work with it, just using their hot springs and volcano activity.

I think Sweden officially stated that they want to be independent of oil by the end of 2023!

I am looking forward to the future. At least the politician realized that they can catch a few votes with energy politics. That means they will at least raise money for these projects...

[John @ Jun 20th 2007 7:28AM]

Is a sail faster?
and
How did they get a tan?
/snark

[matt welke @ Jun 20th 2007 8:13AM]

I saw this on Daily Planet a few days ago. Like people have said before here, the idea, according to the main guy, was to show that solar power is promising. They talked about sails, and admitted that a sail would have been faster, but they wanted to show that just solar could reliably propel the boat across the Atlantic.

The boat had a max speed of 9 knots, but in order to also be able to run off the batteries at night, they did a constant 5 knots day and night. Not bad for a fuel-less boat in my opinion!

[curious @ Jun 20th 2007 2:03PM]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know at what efficiency solar polar becomes cost competitive with oil (at todays prices). I think today we are getting around 20%+ efficiency, but I could be wrong.

Reference would be cool. Thanks

[Fredster @ Jun 22nd 2007 10:01AM]

I have to say that all this renewable energy (wind, solar etc) is very very interesting. i think it's the best for all of us to cut down on what we can and use what is alerady there for us, for free! It will be very exciting to see where it is heading with this technology!