Clean Energy on the High Seas: Solar-Powered Trimaran Sets Off on Eastern US Circumnavigation
Sailing, Sailing… On Solar Power
Powered entirely by solar PV, Solarwave is the first completely self-sufficient ocean-going electric yacht. According to EBA, “The energy is being produced by solar panels.
“In addition to the electric motor this source supplies also the electronics, electrics as well as the household appliances and even the water-maker for the production of drinking water from seawater. No fossil fuel is used on board, no gas for cooking, no diesel for the propulsion, no fuel cell.
“It is only solar-energy that is transferred into electrical energy. No fumes, no pollution, no costs. When the Solarwave Catamaran stops in a harbor, only food will be taken on board, no fossil fuel, not even water.”
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Adding to such noteworthy events, a PlanetSolar team recently completed the first global circumnavigation aboard their eponymous 95-foot solar-powered Swiss “super yacht.” MW Line is also the brains behind Planet Solar’s solar-powered watercraft.
Here in the US, a crew of four last week set out to be the first vessel to complete a circumnavigation of the eastern US — the so-called “Great Loop“– on a solar-powered trimaran, the “Ra.” The two-stage, 6,600-mile journey will taken them from Clearwater, Florida up to New York, where the Ra will spend the winter. The crew and solar-powered trimaran will then set out on a trip up to and across the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway, then down the Mississippi and into the Gulf of Mexico for the final leg of the trip.
“The point of the trip is to show that solar power can be used efficiently to power a craft,” Florida’s News-Press reports.
“We want to show people that, yes, any person can have a boat and make a journey without spending $30,000 in fuel,” the news site quoted Capt. Jim Greer. “We wanted to stress solar power and do the trip without any fossil fuels and without power cords.”
The Ra and its crew are relying on a solar PV array for all their power/fuel needs. “The solar panels pretty much provide us with all we need, for lighting and enough for our computers and Wi-Fi and camera batteries,” video production specialist and crew member Beth Corwin told a News-Press reporter.
The Ra and its crew are benefiting from the enthusiasm and generosity of people they’ve been meeting along the way, including several bags of fresh jumbo shrimp from a local fisherman in Matlacha, Florida. At present, they have hopes that someone will donate another 12-volt battery so that they can install a fan in the hot and cramped sleeping cabin below decks.
In addition to looking to earn a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first completely solar-powered watercraft to circumnavigate the Great Loop, the Ra crew is making a high-definition video of its journey that it is looking to market as as a reality adventure program.
That would be a fitting capstone for the four crew members and the Ra, which is named after the Egyptian god of the sun. “We Googled it and it said that Ra was the mythical god of the sun who traveled around the universe in a boat powered by the sun,” Greer told News-Press. “That was all we needed.”
Photo Credits: Electric Boat Association
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