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It's quick, it's quiet, and it's covered in 300 square meters (3,229 sq ft) of solar panels. The 78-ft (24-m) electric SolarImpact yacht is a concept designed as the first of its kind – an ocean-going solar-powered yacht. An 800-kWh battery on board gives it 10 hours of cruising capability, which can be extended by topping up the battery when the Sun's shining.
The yacht's giant solar array, which covers the vast majority of its upward-facing surfaces, can generate up to 320 kWh a day if they're getting lots of sun. They can serve as the vessel's sole power source if conditions allow, and you're prepared to take your time.
Although this 70-ton aluminum-hulled beast boasts 1,000 kW (1,341 hp) of all-electric power and has an impressive maximum speed of 22 knots, if you're running all the regular systems solely on solar, you will be able to cruise indefinitely, but only at a slow 5 knots – which would take you around the world in about six months if there wasn't a whole lot of land in the way.
Sea-steaders, rejoice!
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Wednesday September 19 2018, @08:23PM (2 children)
You got modded funny but I did the same math and got the same result.
I think anyone who's ever seen a sailboat with a solar panel, some batteries, and an electric trolling motor has had a "hmm" moment, leading to some math, leading to "this isn't going to work..."
It does work if your range is, say, half a mile across the harbor. Purists will make fun of you for not trying that under sail or being patient enough to wait thru a calm, but more pragmatic people are "f it" and use the trolling motor, leading to "I wonder if the solar panel could run that dude 12 hours per day"
I also remember I made a pitiful attempt at "righting moments of inertia" or that stability plot of angle of heel vs righting force or whatever its called and putting thousands of pounds on the roof of a sailboat usually did nothing for stability statistics. The center of balance is usually belowdecks for most ships (lobsta trawlers maybe exception?) so you can't go by sheer bulk capacity alone.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 19 2018, @08:33PM
If you pack on enough batteries (preferably down low), a solar system can charge them all week long and give you a couple of hours of cruising on the weekend. Without a sail, forget it (or charge off dock power all night long.)
Also, bring a checkbook, no way you can safely transport all the $100 bills required to pay for such a system.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @07:56PM
I seem to recall something about solar fabrics, targeted at generating electricity with clothing, but could "solar canvas" be used for sails? Would a turbine (spun by water) generating energy while sails are deployed lead to too much drag or some other kind of instability? Personally, I've been waiting for some of Harry Harrison's ideas to be implemented...