Hope for the future with mighty solar yacht

by Sail-World Cruising/the Guardian. on 4 Apr 2010 Everything begins with a dream, and the world's largest ever solar yacht is no different.

Called Turanor, which is borrowed from Tolkien's famed 'Lord of the Rings' and means 'power of the sun', the yacht's goal is to circumnavigate the world in - no not 80, like Phileas Fogg, maybe that'll be the next dream - but in 160 days.

Just launched in Kiel in Germany, the 85 tonne catamaran is equipped with 38,000 solar cells. Following a year of extensive testing, its creators, PlanetSolar, plan that the Türanor will embark on its maiden voyage around the world capturing as much solar energy as possible, all at a steady pace of 7.5 knots.

Turanor is a 31-metre-long multi-hull vessel and will please conventional sailors with its silence in operation. It is topped by scores of photovoltaic panels, with a total area of more than 600 sq metres, covering, as can be seen in the images, most of the catamaran’s surface. More panels adorn outriggers on the starboard, port, and stern sections, all of which are able to retract during rough weather. Captured solar energy is stored in the world’s largest lithium ion battery, which will power the boat’s emissions-free, (and silent) electric motor.

The boat is financed by the German entrepreneur and solar pioneer Immo Ströher, in close cooperation with Knierim Yachtbau GmbH, the shipyard that built the catamaran

'We've made it, she's safe, and she floats,' he whispered to Britain's Guardian, with tears welling in his eyes.

Ströher's granddaughter christened her this week by smashing a bottle of champagne against her teak deck, and pronouncing: 'May you always have plenty of water under your bows, and sun on your deck.'

'The mission of the skippers will be to chase the sun,' said Dany Faigaux, a member of PlanetSolar, the Swiss team behind the ambitious project. 'Up until now, sailing navigation has involved working with the three parameters of the waves, wind and tide. But we've added two new dimensions – namely, sunlight and the lithium ion battery. It's a completely new form of energy management.'

The £16m catamaran – chosen for its energy-saving ability to 'slice' rather than 'ride' through waves – will store energy in its batteries by day. It can run on its stored energy in the absence of sunlight for around three days at 7.5 knots, the speed of an average oil tanker. At slower speeds it could run for up to 15 days, according to its makers.

Türanor, which will travel along an equatorial route – to take most advantage of the sunshine – will be helped by French meteorologists who will advise the most efficient path along which to steer it according to current conditions and forecasts.

If it is a particularly cloudy day, they might recommend a diversion to sunnier parts, even if the route turns out to be longer. 'Its all about maximising its energy efficiency,' said Faigaux.

The 34,000-mile journey will take the vessel across the Atlantic, the Panama Canal, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean over a scheduled 160 days. The voyage is intended not so much to revolutionise sea travel – the technology requires the vessel to be as light as possible, so it would not be suitable for heavy container ships – as to prove the under-exploited potential of solar energy.

'We want to be the Phileas Fogg of the 21st century,' said 38-year old Domjan, the project's pioneer, referring to his famed story, 'Around the World in 80 Days'. 'But beyond Jules Verne's dream, our project is meant to serve the environment and to enable solar energy to replace fossil fuels, and to motivate engineers and scientists to develop these technologies,' he said. Appropriately, one of the patron's of the project is Jean Verne, the great-grandson of the French author of Around the World in Eighty Days.

Gerard d'Aboville, his fellow skipper for the forthcoming voyage, is no stranger to maritime challenges, having become the first person to row across the Atlantic Ocean in 1980.

'We'll have to learn a new kind of navigation,' he said. 'It's very different from any of the other challenges I've faced, which is what makes it so interesting. It's strongly symbolic for the future of solar energy, but I would not dare to say that tomorrow a merchant boat or a passenger plane will be powered by the sun.'

Where you can see Turanor:

PlanetSolar will be the guest of honour at the Hafengeburtstag, Hamburg's Port Festival, which will take place from 7th to 9th May in Hamburg. On this occasion the public will be able to see Turanor under way. PlanetSolar will take part in the opening parade on 7th May and the closing parade on 9th May. The solar-powered catamaran will be amongst those at the head of the parade. You will also be able to visit the PlanetSolar Village throughout the weekend in the Port of Hamburg.