Solar boat crew heading out on a fantastic voyage around the world
By Laura June 
posted April 11th 2009 10:50PM
posted April 11th 2009 10:50PM
A group of engineers, scientists and sailors have banded together to form a team they call Solar Planet. The group are now building a 98-foot-long solar-powered boat, for the express purpose of sailing all the way around the world using nothing but the delicious power of the sun. The $13 million dollar vessel -- which is currently in construction in Kiel, Germany -- will have 5,059 square feet of photovoltaic cells, and should be able to circumnavigate the earth in about 120 days, at a rate of about 10 knots. The project is being funded by Swiss company Rivendell Holding AG, that has committed to investing in green technology. The group hopes to set sail sometime next year from Marseilles, France, with various stops off along the way. They will undoubtedly tire of hearing that Daft Punk song long before they ever leave the shore. Check out a sweet render of the boat after the break.
@Jason: Awesomeness
@KEROLiUKAS: ::facepalm::
They didn't exactly "invent" the solar boat, these are just couple of rich guys that want to do this (there can't be anything wrong with that, can there?)
"Solarboat" to sailboat comparison is not exactly apples to apples. You can always count on the light the next day (even on a cloudy day), but you can't count on the wind.
I've personally pulled my sailboat out to a local lake couple times, hoping for some fun times; instead I sat in the middle of the lake with a saggy sale, drinking beer (which is not that bad I guess). My point is, it's not the same.
And 10knots average DAILY SPEED, IS PRETTY DAMN FAST. The fastest average speed for a around-the-world kind of trip is 18knots I think (and that's on a tricked out catamaran), which is NOT that much faster...
Saggy sail, not "sale".
And you can't count on the sun much more than the wind. On a cloudy day, the energy a solar panel receives will be 1/8th of what it gets on a sunny day. This disparity is large enough that you can find yourself in a pretty tight spot if you only have sun power.
"Planet Solar is being built at the Knierim Yacht Club in Kiel, Germany. The vessel, which is shaped something like an arrowhead, will be 98 feet long and 50 feet wide. That climbs to 114 feet and 82 feet when the solar panels are fully unfurled."
TYPO TYPO and dare I say it TYPO. Second time this has happened today(And both in the Numbers Department). You guys should READ your posts before submitting, as this is a professionally recognized blog
Good luck getting past Somalia
The first four or so comments about pirates weren't funny, and I am pretty sure yours misses the mark be an even greater margin.
wow, i totally got beaten to that punchline. that's what i get for not reading comments before commenting....
Since everyone else is poking fun at the 9 foot long thing....
I'll just point out that "$13 million dollar vessel" is redundant. Either take out the $ or the word "dollar."
don't go by Somalia!
Pirates! Arggh! They be after your 3 million dollar sun powered advanced carbon fiber composite boat!!!1!!one!
A sailboat is solar powered... where do you think wind (not THAT kind of wind) comes from?
I guess what is being said the solar power discussed here is through the use of photon conversion to electricity.
Why don't people get that wind s a form of solar power? I guess the dumbing down process is working.
It also looks like that are sailing the Southern Ocean. It is technically circumnavigating the globe but not in the tropics. Different adventure all together. Southern Ocean is a very rough and cold ride.
how is a solar boat better than a sail boat? both have energy requirements subject to weather, just one of them you cant fix if it breaks.
Well my computer is technically Big-Bang powered, but then again so am I.
Because it's not wind-powered, it's SOLAR-POWERED....
The "solar" & "wind" (followed by "-powered") refer to the energy transfer protocol, not to the energy source.
Because according to your dumbass definition of "solar-powered" - EVERY SINGLE THING ON EARTH IS SOLAR-POWERED, even the gasoline engine. You may argue to your heart content, that this indeed is true, but the words get defined for the common usage, not for your philosophical masturbatory pleasure. Just because you don't understand what the word means, doesn't mean you get to make up your own meaning.
@pretol...
You really are a piece of work...
Please elucidate -without profaning anyone's science knowledge how wind is generated. I am sure, if you have any knowledge of the weather that wind is directly related to sun and heat and convection and induction and a whole bunch of other words that have no philosophical bent to them at all.
And since you have such a wild hair up your A$$ consider that yes, all energies are derived directly or indirectly from the sun.
But that is not what I was saying - I was actually cracking a joke. Of the which, you in your bellicose attitude didn't get!
Now if you go back and read what I said, you will notice I did define "solar" power as related to the above misquoted article. Or do you not know about photons and such!
What a phuquen bunch of idiots sometimes....
Tongue in cheek is not a form of scientific inquiry.
And oh by the way, lard a$$, I work in space based solar energy collection and transmission, so I may know just a tad bit about solar....
ooIoo
cheers for all the ones who actually got the sarcasm...
and know a little about meteorology.
Your "cracking a joke" was a major fail (not funny and irrelevant). The fact that the wind is an cause-effect relationship with the sun, though undeniably true, is IRRELEVANT to the definition of the words "wind-powered" and "solar-powered".
@dajimmers: MMmmm... Cosmic Background Radiation....
Give me 13 mil and I'll build you 2 solar powered 8 ft boats.
So, a 13 million dollar boat that goes slower than a sailboat, how impressive. Why not invest in making it fast and interesting.
Solar power captured in more than 2 dimensions.... brilliant.... get right on that patent.
The only thing more pointless than a boat that runs just on solar power is the slackers sitting around commenting on it.
I mean really... what is the point? In a hundred and twenty days... are they kidding? pointless and slow?!? I know why the author thought it was only 8 feet long, it's the short bus of the sea.
Skipping the "proof of concept" phase and going straight to the "available now at your local dealership!" phase.... brilliant.... get right on that failboat
Very interesting things,thank you for sharing!!
Eric Lam
http://www.1gameconsole.com
Daft Punk "Around the World", for anyone else who didn't know yet cares.
I hadn't gotten a chance to see the other picture, it didn't load on chrome, but I'm assuming the solar panels will be unfurled in plane with the water...but, would I be correct in thinking that if you were to raise them as you would normal sails, that they would then also be able to catch the reflection of the sun off the water also? Thus increasing the amount of solar rays caught by the panels? Can some solar panels handle this much juice? Am I onto something or is this hog wash? Also, if you could raise them like normal sails could they then also harness the wind power as a normal "wind" sail? Is the solar panel tech to the point where they can be light and flexible and possibly able to be somehow "stitched" onto a normal sail? Anyone? Beuler?
hmmm... you gave me an idea with that.
i wonder if its possible to have a cmbination of regular solar pannels, and flexible solar pannel (sails) so that if there is wind, the boat actually sails, while storing and gathering energy, so when there is no wind, the sail lowers and you travel by conserved energy
i also thought of things that could generate power in a catamaran through wave motion.
for example allow, some mechanism to generate force when each (catamaran Hull) goes over a wake, sort of like the prius breaking.
this way as the boat goes over waves, it cosnstantly generates a bit more power due to being flexed through the center in a specially designed way.
what do you think about these ideas?
i have been thinking of how one could make a cheaper boat, that is very energy efficient to travel around the world for (blue collar workers) such as myself
How would this be better then a SailDrive? (A sailboat that charges a battery for an electric motor when under sail, the electric motor is used when in port. etc)
A solar powered boat, for $14mills, wow; we are very intelligent, how many metric tons of greenhouse gases are released in this wonderful build?? that is why we never really progress, we just spin around in circles, pretending progress and intelligence.
There is another boat that will start ealier - already this year - www.solarwave.at
Far less futuristic - a boat everyone could buy for the same price like a sailboat of the same size - app. 600.000 US$
Wow, has NOONE made the likeness to a strangely shaped penis?
Where are you rita?
Oh, rita... Engadget's own resident pervert.
Cut that time down by a third and we have a deal!
-Phileas Fogg
I think every sailboat ever made is a solar powered boat since the cooling and warming of the atmosphere and ocean by the sun results in weather. Wind power is solar power.
ah, very outside the box kind of thinking....you an inventor?
...ride ride slippedy slide
ya better be ready when the sun gets high...
(+1) for the Coolio reference :)
98 Feet.
"The group are now building a 8-foot-long" how about The group IS now building AN 8-foot-long
My issue with this stunt... and it is a stunt.. is um do we really need an all solar boat.. It's not like we didn't have eco-friendly options on the high seas...We have been using wind power since 3000BC.. Also how good for the environment is it really...? What kind of energy storage are we looking at for all the electricity it will need when its dark..Heaven forbid they hit a storm or hurricane. Ever notice how dark it gets in a hurricane movie? Then in the ultimate doomsday scenario, lets say the boat ends up sinking.. and all those exotic batteries and composites sink to the bottom of the ocean... what kind of havoc will it reek on the ecosystem surrounding the wreck. old fashioned timber based Sailboat sinks and we get a wreck with a small carbon footprint sitting on the bottom waiting for Jacques Cousteau's great grandson to find it..Everything does not have to be made or modified Solar. how about a solar tractor or a solar bike... maybe a solar blimp.. ahhhI got a good one, solar hot air balloon. I am just saying Green is ok.. but coming up with a solar alternative for solar's sake is just kinda a waste of energy..Rant done.
5059 square feet is 470 square meters (rounded off slightly). Peak insolation is 1000 watts per square meter, but that's with the sun directly over the surface. So with the sun directly overhead, that's 470 kilowatts on the solar collection surface of the boat. Commercial solar panels are about 20% efficient, so they'll get 94 kilowatts out of the panels at the peak. For the area where I live, the average insolation is just about 6 kilowatt-hours per day (length of the day is variable across the year, and changes with latitude), so if this were sailing at my latitude it would generate an average of 564 kilowatt-hours per day.
Oh, the article says their panels are 22% efficient, so make that 620 kilowatt-hours per day. No mention of the power requirements of their motors, though.
Now thinking about storing that power...if they want to run the motors all night long, they'd need a heck of a lot of batteries. A 3 kilowatt-hour battery is almost 160 pounds. Get 100 of them to store 300KWH, that's 8 tons of batteries...anyone know how much fuel a vessel of this size would typically carry? Diesel is 7 pounds per gallon, 8 tons would be about 2,285 gallons.
are they hand sanding this thing?
Aye, beware the Horn of Africa, ye land-lovin' squidqueefs. Me hears there be pirates roamin' them waters. Ye be warned. Aaaarrrr!
And ye better keep yer eyes peeled for them scallywag Navy SEALs. They be the bane of pirates everywhere, killin' them in the night and such. Aaaarrrr!
Oh yeah: USA! USA! USA! Aaarrrr!
"squidqueef"
TWISTED LOGIC: Excuse me. But we ALREADY have solar powered boats. They're called SAILBOATS. Wind is created by the sun warming the land.
Why don't they just fly?
I will never tire of the "around the world" lyrics
why is it in that shape and why is it flesh-colored?