Planet Solar aims to show potential of renewable energy
by Jeni Bone on 4 Oct 2010
PlanetSolar September 2010 SW
The solar-powered yacht Planet Solar has set out on its 31,000 mile (50,000km) trip around the globe. Travelling at its estimated average speed of 7.5 knots per hour, it aims to travel around the world in about 160 days.
Known as the 'TÛRANOR', from J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' saga, meaning 'The Power of the Sun', the boat - designed by Auckland-based LOMOcean Design - departed Monaco last Monday 27 September on the first leg of a world tour.
PlanetSolar's six-men crew will cross the Atlantic Ocean, the Panama Canal, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and finally the Suez Canal, to return to the Mediterranean. After a roadshow with the village that will cross Switzerland in 2009, the boat will stop in cities like New-York, San Francisco, Singapour and Abu-Dhabi.
The stopovers (Miami, Cancun, San Francisco, Sydney, Singapour, Abu Dhabi) will be organised in large port cities; they will give the project a high profile, and will be used as a promotional platform for renewable energies, especially solar.
On its large upper surface are 5,780 square feet of photovoltaic solar panels with a capacity of 93.5 kilowatts of electricity. The boat is a catamaran 101 feet in length. It cost about US $13m to construct and was funded by Rivendell Holding AG, a Swiss company renewable energy investment company.
If successful, the venture will demonstrate solar power is a real-world, seaworthy technology for long voyages, and that the shipping industry can replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources.
The Solar Planet team says the aim of its mission is to show the potential of renewable energy. 'Our society is too dependent on fossil fuels, which are in limited supply and which are causing measurable negative effects on the earth’s atmosphere. It’s now time to demonstrate the potential that renewable energies have to offer in the area of mobility.'
The catamaran was constructed in Kiel, Germany in just 14 months. It is capable of accommodating up to 40 occupants, but for the very long journey, just four will be the crew. You can follow the blog and the vessel’s position on Google maps at its site: http://planetsolar.org/index.en.php
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