There are not many solar powered boats, but we think that in the future this will increase. To give an impulse on these environmental friendly boats we designed our solar power driven boat, the Solar Boat. The Solar Boat gets its energy from the sun and also has a battery pack for energy storage. The batteries will allow to work even if it is dark. The Solar Boat is a catamaran type of ship. During the design of the boat there are three pillars that form the base: efficiency, weight and reliability. The working of the drive mechanism of Solar Boat and more information can be found below in the Prezi presentation.

 

Dynamics and stability

The design has to be efficient in order to reduce the surface of the solar panels as much as possible. This energy has to be stored in order to overcome moments of complete darkness. This is done by the use of 8 blocks of lithium-ion batteries, which gives the Solar Boat 65 hours to overcome these dark periods. In order to use the energy in the most efficient way, a catamaran type of ship is chosen, so that the whole hull of the ship is lifted above the water surface. The less hydrofoils that are used, the less the resistance will be. For the Solar Boat the choice went out to the minimum amount of two hydrofoils, one on the left and one on the right.

 

Weight

Secondly, the weight of the boat is a crucial aspect to achieve a higher speed. Therefore a carbon structure is chosen to make the futuristic boat as light as possible, without compromising the durability of the Solar Boat. The maximum speed that can be reached using this approach is 25 km/h. The 30 meter long and 20 meter wide boat has an unloaded weight of 80.000 kg.

 

Reliability

Furthermore the reliability is very important for the design of the boat. The boat should perform for a long time so that more solar powered boats will be used in the future.

 

Dimensions