First boat to go around the globe with only solar power

There has been for a half a year already expedition ongoing to go around the world with boat using only solar power. They have already got half way around the world and are currently heading from Central-America to Australia.

Using solar power for boats makes lot of sense and definitely will be the way to go in future. Sea and sun goes well together and specifically for leisure purposes these kind of boats seem great. Hopefully also soon in the future there would be enough capacity to carry cargo with those. If you are interested go to see the details from their website and see the route and lot more info with videos and maps about journey. 

PlanetSolar

Here's the boat details from their website:

Technology

PlanetSolar is a catamaran that runs solely on the energy found in light. Additional removable parts allow it to expose a total of 537 m2 of photovoltaic modules (solar panels) to the sun. This impressive data makes it the biggest solar-powered ship in the world. 

• Legnth: 31 m
• Width: 15 m
• Length with flaps: 35 m
• Width with flaps: 23 m
• Height: 6.1 m
• Draft: 1.55 m
• Weight: 95 t
• Surface area of solar modules: 537 m²
• PV panel efficiency: 18.8%
• Installed PV power: 93.5 kW (127.0 hp)
• Average engine consumption: 20 kW (26.8 hp)
• Crew: 6 people
• Number of people that can go on board: 40
• Autonomy: never-ending solar navigation

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen