First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

[PhiberOpticks]

Solar-powered Swiss boat crosses the Atlantic
from Engadget by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Transportation

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.

Interesting. The most intriguing thing about it is the cost-efficiency claim. One more step into the future.

[Taskmage]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

Ah, sorry mate. It's an anti-spam measure we've got. You can't post urls until you've crossed a certain threshold of posts. It's kindof annoying, I know. We're thinking about tweaking the way it works, but in the meantime you just have to wait.

-- edit --

Amazing. Nothing but solar power. Maybe someday they'll make a boat that can cross the Atlantic with nothing but the power of wind and human spirit. ^_^ Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that our alternative energy technology is seeing progress, but it doesn't make for a very exciting headline, does it? XD

[Hantz]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

Cost-effieciency? Hmmph.

I sailed my boat around the world using wind power.

[Murphie]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

I felt a little silly conducting with my baton, but I got over it.

[PhiberOpticks]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

Yeah, hearing about alternative-fuel sources doesn't register as being very interesting with the majority of people. I find it interesting and have found that it's even influenced (or articulated, rather) my career choice for the future. Architecture and Environmental Designs.

[Hantz]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

Not I. Looking cool has never been my forte, so I just swung away.

edit: Damn it, in response to Murphie's post.

[Murphie]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

Not I. Looking cool has never been my forte, so I just swung away.

Yeah, you pretty much just had to embrace it.

[Taskmage]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

I think it's cool and all that someone's out there figuring out how to make solar power work, but the achievement itself is just reproducing 16th century results with 21st century technology.

[Feba]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

so in other news, someone is planning on building a 2000 foot tall tower in the austrailian outback to turn solar rays into heat which will turn giant wind turbines... or something. Which begs the question, "Why the hell aren't you just using solar panels?"

[Taskmage]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

Ehh. Maybe the energy transfer is more efficient that way. Photovoltaic cells probably lose a lot of energy to reflected light and diffused heat, not to mention that they break down into nasty chemicals. That'd be my guess.

[PhiberOpticks]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

so in other news, someone is planning on building a 2000 foot tall tower in the austrailian outback to turn solar rays into heat which will turn giant wind turbines... or something. Which begs the question, "Why the hell aren't you just using solar panels?"

Wind turbines could supply constant power. But unless it requires less energy to turn the turbines than it does to create solar heat, it's useless. A 2000 foot tower would also conserve a lot of space. Instead of spreading panels all over the land, they're limiting it to a small portion of land.

[Feba]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

Wind turbines could supply constant power.

not the way this is designed. I should've made it clearer: They're surrounding it with a giant field of what looks to be glass covered, It seems like it's supposed to heat up the air under it, the heat trying to rise to the cold air turns turbines at the base of the tower. Let me see if I can find what i'm talking about, I saw it on TV and it looked downright stupid.

[Feba]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

o A Solar chimney consists of a large greenhouse (multiple square miles of area covered by a transparent roof) which is sloped gently up to a central hollow tower or chimney. The sun heats the air in the greenhouse which then rises up the chimney driving an air turbine (similar to the hydroelectric turbines used to generate power at dams) in the chimney as it rises. Water filled tubes on the floor of the greenhouse serve as heat storage which allows the chimney to operate even at night and on cloudy days. The amount of water in the tubes can be changed to alter the profile of power production and match it closely to the power demand the chimney serves.

o The edges of the greenhouse can actually be used for agribusiness to grow plants, so not all the space taken up is solely devoted to electric production.

o The beauty of solar chimneys is that they are extremely low tech, and can be built without heavy equipment using simple materials. The only exception to this is the turbine, and even that is much less complex than turbines used to generate power from wind, because the wind in a solar chimney is much more regular than naturally occurring winds and storms that wind turbines have to deal with.

o The first solar chimney was built in
Manzanares, Spain and ran continuously for 32 months in the late 1980s with 95% availability (considerably better than most coal and nuclear plants.) See a video tour of this chimney I ran across on EcoGeek.

o A 200MW chimney is planned by EnviroMission of Melbourne Austrailia for the Austrailian Outback.

o It may be possible to build solar chimneys on south-facing slopes or simply as an extra layer of glazing on tall buildings with a turbine at the top which would make them even cheaper by avoiding the necessity of building the tall chimney (my idea).

from some random blog.

[PhiberOpticks]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

Oh, the whole point of that is to basically multiply the energy produced by the solar energy. The amount of energy required to get those turbines is a good bit less than what those turbines turn out by spinning.

[DakAttack]

Re: First solar-powered boat crosses the Atlantic

My crack team of scientists is still developing a boat that runs on salt water, but the damn thing gets clogged with jelly fish and dolphins.

You'd think with a boat that runs on solar power, it'd only be a matter of time before it gets where it wants to go. It's not like they're going to set a goal to cross the Pacific on solar power, and then the sun explodes effectively ruining their plans.